How to play bingo

Track your numbers, mark your sheets, then yell “bingo” from the top of your lungs when your card matches the pattern in play. It’s a recipe for fun.

Paper bingo

Many B.C. casinos offer both paper and electronic bingo. With the paper version, you buy bingo cards at the facility with numbers on them in a 5 x 5 grid. Each card has 24 numbered spaces and one free space in the middle. Numbers are drawn at random out of a possible 75 balls, until a player completes the pattern being played on one of their cards.

Electronic bingo

Electronic bingo follows the same basic approach, but instead of daubing numbers on paper, you buy a receipt slip from a cashier, log onto an electronic bingo terminal and buy a card, and daub your squares right on the touch screen. Payouts and game variations vary depending on the location. Visit your local casino or bingo hall to see what games they offer. 

Odds of winning

As you might suspect, bingo is a chance-based game, not a game of skill. It’s completely random. There’s no strategy to help you win, and you cannot develop any skills to help you gain an advantage. The only thing you can control is how much you bet, how often you play and for how long. And play for fun.

For more information on the concepts of skill and chance, visit GameSense.com.