90 Ball Bingo Explained

Not all bingo games are the same.  There are actually two different versions of the game, the American version which is based on 75 numbers, and the British version which is based on 90 numbers.  The UK version predominates in the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland although online bingo players can find sites which offer the American version.

Both versions of the game are descended from the Lo Giucco del Lotto D’Italia which was the Italian National Lottery game introduced in 1530 in Italy but they developed differently in the United Kingdom and the United States. Most players aren’t aware of the two versions unless they play bingo online.  Both versions are based on the lotto family of games and are played by covering the called numbers on the bingo ticket to make the required pattern.  When the pattern is achieved, the player signals a bingo, and receives the pot if the numbers are verified.

The UK version is played on a rectangular grid that is nine vertical columns by three horizontal rows.  There are five numbers on each horizontal line with the remainder of the spaces left blank.  Each vertical column has an allowable range of numbers. The first vertical column contains numbers from one through ten; the second contains numbers from eleven through twenty; the third has twenty-one through thirty; the fourth has thirty-one through forty; the fifth has forty-one through fifty; the sixth has fifty-one through sixty; the seventy has sixty-one through seventy; the eighth has numbers seventy-one through eighty; and the ninth has numbers eighty-one though ninety.

Land-based tickets can be purchased by the book, which consist of ten different color tickets: gold, lime, violet, yellow, pink, grey, orange, blue, red and white.  The different colors correspond to the different games that are played. A single book has ten tickets while a multiple book has six tickets for each color or a total of sixty tickets.  The players can also purchase flyers, which are single sheets of six tickets.  The players must manually check and mark the numbers so players play the number of tickets that are financially and physically comfortable for them to play.

Playing bingo online, the software usually has an auto-daub function which marks the tickets for the players.  The number of tickets the player can play is determined by the financial position of the player and the house rules and there can be some variation from bingo site to bingo site and the tickets do not have to conform to the colors of land-based play.

There is less variety in the UK version of the game since there are no patterns.  A regular bingo consists of a single line: special games are played for two or three lines.  The coverall, or three line game is known as a full house or as housie.  The rectangular shape of the grid precludes the playing of different patterns so the British version consists of one, two or three lines only.

Article Source: http://www.theukarticledirectory.co.uk