Bingo

Bingo is a game of chance for two or more players. Each player is given a card marked with a grid containing a unique combination of numbers and blank spaces. The winning pattern to be formed on the card is announced. On each turn, a non-player known as the caller randomly selects a numbered ball from a container and announces the number to all the players. The ball is then set aside so that it cannot be chosen again. Each player searches his card for the called number, and if he finds it, marks it. The element of skill in the game is the ability to search one's card for the called number in the short time before the next number is called.

The caller continues to select and announce numbers until the first player forms the agreed pattern on his card and shouts out the name of the pattern. The most common pattern, called house, simply consists of marking all the numbers on the card.

There are traditional calls for the numbers. For example:

• one is "Kelly's eye"
• seven is "lucky for some"
• eight is "one fat lady"
• eleven is "legs"
• thirteen is "unlucky for some"
• sixteen is "sweet sixteen"
• twenty-one is "key of the door"
• twenty-two[?] is "two little ducks"
• sixty-six[?] is "clickety click"
• eighty-eight[?] is "two fat ladies"

External links

• Bingo Culture (comparing Canadian and British bingo) (http://www.newimprovedhead.com/bingo.htm)