How to Play 75-Ball Bingo
75-Ball Bingo is the most common way to play bingo, based on the traditional North American version of the game. Introduced on a national scale in the 1930’s by toy manufacturer Edwin Lowe, 75-Ball Bingo is easily one of the most popular games among all age groups in the United States and beyond.
It’s not hard to learn how to play 75-Ball Bingo. So long as you can read numbers, you can play. 75-Ball Bingo is a game of sheer luck, with no real skill involved.
How to Play 75-Ball Bingo: Numbers
75-Ball Bingo is played with balls number 1-75, generally drawn randomly from a machine that uses a puff of air to bring one ball to the surface at a time. Other 75-Ball Bingo games involve an electronic number drawing, where a software program uses an RNG (random number generator) to select each number at random.
The numbers are displayed on a screen, made clearly visible to all players.
How to Play 75-Ball Bingo: Cards
A 75-Ball Bingo card is made up of 25 squares in a 5×5 grid. The very center square is the Free Space, marked “FREE”. This square is instantly marked off to assist in the completion of whatever 75-Ball Bingo pattern you might be playing. (See “How to Play 75-Ball Bingo: Patterns” below)
There are 5 columns down, each labeled with a letter; B-I-N-G-O. Each column will contain 5 random numbers (or 4 numbers in the case of the N column, because of the Free Space) within a 15-number range. The first column, the B, can only contain numbers ranging from 1-15; the I column 16-30; the N column 31-45; the G column 46-60; the O column 61-75.
How to Play 75-Ball Bingo: Patterns
The biggest difference between 75-Ball Bingo and its European cousin, 90-Ball Bingo, is the presence of pattern bingo games. Because the 75-Ball Bingo card has a 5×5 grid of random numbers, there are hundreds of patterns that can be applied. These include numbers, letters and shapes, like the coffee mug, umbrella or airplane, as well as things like 4-corners and coverall bingo.
Coverall is often played as a jackpot bingo game with bigger prizes on the line. The players must cover every single square on their bingo card to win.
How to Play 75-Ball Bingo: Playing the Game
To play 75-Ball Bingo, make sure you are first aware of the bingo pattern being played (it should be displayed on or next to the screen where the numbers are shown). Each time a number is called, the player looks over his/her card(s) for that number. For example, if B-13 is called, players look in the B column for a 13.
Whenever a called numbers appears on the card, it is daubed with a foam-tip marker, called a dauber.
How to Play 75-Ball Bingo: Winning
To win a game of 75-Ball Bingo, all you have to do is complete the bingo pattern being played on a single bingo card. Once all numbers within that pattern have been daubed, shout “Bingo!” the first person to correctly daub the complete pattern and shout “Bingo!” win the game.
How to Play 75-Ball Bingo: Online Bingo
Playing 75-Ball Bingo online is much easier than the live version, though it doesn’t really get your heart racing in the same manner. This is because players are not required to really do anything. An Auto-Daub feature can be used to instantly mark off all bingo cards, and the software even calls “Bingo!” for the winner(s) automatically. You can turn off Auto-daub to have a more realistic live bingo experience.
Most players choose to keep the Auto-Daub feature on because it allows them to participate in the online bingo chat, or play side games like slots, video poker and other casino style games. This helps break the monotony of a standard 75-Ball Bingo game with a more entertaining distraction, especially for avid online bingo players.