Bingo Card

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The Bingo Card

Upon arrival at the bingo hall, you have to buy your card or a book of bingo cards at the counter. Each book usually consists of five to eight colored bingo tickets, each color corresponds to a different game. Of course you can also buy books with six or 12 or more tickets, as well.

Basically, there are two types of bingo cards. The first one is the typical card made of paper and are usually considered as the "throw away" type. The other is the "permanent" type or the hard-plastic and cardboard with sliding windows over each number.

In America each bingo card has five columns and five rows with 24 numbers out of a total of 75 possible game numbers. Bingo cards come with the word "B-I-N-G-O" printed across the top of the five columns. The center of the bingo card is a free space. In announcing the drawn balls, the letter is called out first, followed by the number. For example: "G-55, I-24,..".

In the United Kingdom and Australia each bingo card has 9 columns and three rows with 15 numbers, making out a total of 90 possible game numbers. In the first column, the numbers 1 to 10 are listed, in the second 11 to 19, in the third 20 to 29, and so on, making it very easy for players to cross off the numbers as they are called.