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Playing 1 - 75 Bingo

If you're unfamiliar with bingo, you might want first to read Bingo: The Basics - click here

If you play bingo at a regular social event, 1 - 75 bingo (or American bingo) is a great idea:

• it's an enjoyable change from playing 1 - 90 bingo all the time
• the bingo cards (in the UK) are most commonly plastic shutterboards - which are user-friendly, especially for players who find a bingo ticket and dabber difficult (perhaps because of arthritis) as you can open and close the shutters with a finger-tip

Although the cost of shutterboards makes 1 - 75 less suitable for occasional fundraising events, it's an outlay worth making if you play bingo regularly as the shutterboards last for years, and you don't have to buy bingo tickets  (or not so many, if you also play 1 - 90 bingo).

Bingo Selector - You can use an ordinary bingo cage or electronic bingo selector for playing 1 - 75 bingo.  Simply take out the unwanted balls from a bingo cage, or change the setting on an electronic bingo selector.

The Shutter Board - Each board has 24 numbers and a "free space" in the middle which can be used to make up a winning pattern.

The distribution of numbers on the card is very easy to grasp.  There are 5 columns and 5 rows (or lines across).  Each column is represented by a letter - B,I,N,G,O.  There are always 5 numbers from between 1 and 15 in the "B" column, 5 numbers from between 16 and 30 in the "I" column, and so on.

1 - 75 bingo Games

There's a huge variety of 1 - 75 bingo games you can play - because the lay-out of numbers is in a square.  You can even make up your own games - with different winning "patterns".

Basic Games - Shown below are some basic games you can play - each finishing with a full house (or "coverall" as the Americans call it):

(i) Line Across               (ii) Two Lines Across              (iii) Full House

(i) Four Corners             (ii) Diagonals                           (iii) Full House

(i)  B & O Lines             (ii) Outside Track               (iii) Full House

Other Winning Patterns:  Below are just a few examples of other winning patterns you can play.  As you can see, you really can make up whatever pattern you like.

Letters:

Shapes:

    Diamond                 Pyramid                    Tree                   Top Hat        

         Champagne Glass

 Click on any of the links below for further information on playing bingo:

           Bingo: The Basics                   Bingo at Fundraising Events           

         Bingo at Regular Social Events         Bingo tickets (1 - 90 Bingo)

                                            Traditional Bingo Calls