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Rules of Bingo

Bingo is played on cards with numbers on them in a 5 x 5 grid corresponding to the five letters in the word B-I-N-G-O. Bingo cards contain 24 numbered spaces and one free space (blank). The numbers are assigned at random on each card and are arranged in f

When the game starts, numbers like B-2 or 0-68 are drawn at random and announced. There are 75 numbers in total in American Bingo. In British and Australian Bingo there is 90 numbers in total. When a player finds a matching number on one of his cards (you’re allowed to play several cards at once), he dabs it out with his dabber (a plastic bottle filled with ink, topped with a dabbing sponge). The players have a certain number of seconds to find the number on their Bingo cards (in online Bingo this can be done automatically). The first player to fill the numbers in a pattern according to the rules of the particular game shouts out "BINGO!" and wins.

The patterns you have to complete to make a Bingo differ from game to game. These are some examples:

Postage stamps - you have to fill two squares of four numbers on a single card, each in a corner of your card.

Blood, Sweat and Tears - you have to fill a single bingo card with three bingos (corners do not count)

Kite and Tail - you have to fill a diagonal plus one of the corners running through the diagonal, to make what looks like a kite.

Six Pack - you have to fill to make a pattern of six numbers, two rows of three each, horizontal or vertical. Sometimes you can use the free space, sometimes not.

Nine pack - you have to fill a square of nine numbers.

Cover all - you have to fill all numbers on a card for bingo.

Eight states - you have to fill the numbers surrounding the free space.

Dotted picture frame - you have to fill every other space around the card.

Top and bottom - you have to fill the top row and bottom row.