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How to Play 75 Ball Bingo – Hands Down the Most Popular US Bingo Game

75 ball bingo originates across the water in the US of A. Many of you will be thinking, hang on a minute, bingo is a British invention. But that’s actually not true. In both the US and Canada, bingo has been played since the 1920s, but the game itself is actually thought to have begun in Italy in the 16th century. The popularity of 75 ball bingo peaked in America around the 1940s and with the advent of online bingo games its popularity has spread across the Atlantic and is now a staple of most online bingo sites.

The layout and pattern of 75 ball bingo cards

Tickets for a 75 ball bingo game are laid out in a 5×5 grid of numbers. Across the top of the card, the word BINGO is displayed and under each letter is a column of numbers.

  • Numbers 1 to 15 – In the column marked B
  • Numbers 16 to 30 – In the column marked I
  • Numbers 31 to 45 – In the column marked N (with one black space in the middle)
  • Numbers 46 to 60 – In the column marked G
  • Numbers 61 to 75 – In the column market O

There is a square in the middle of every card that is a blank space, and it can be used by players to complete their patterns.

How to play 75 ball bingo

75 Ball Bingo - Let The Game Begin The first thing you’ll need to do, once you’ve bought your tickets, is to check the pattern you’ll be required to complete. These differ from bingo room to bingo room, and for each individual game. Once you’ve found out what the pattern is it’s time to play the game. Listen out for the numbers, which are picked at random, and if they appear on your card mark them off. You should be able to see the winning pattern somewhere on the screen and if you’re the first person to complete it you’re the winner. There may also be a full house winning ticket as well. The purest form of 75 ball bingo is also known as Single Line Bingo and the winner only needs to complete a single line either down, diagonally or across. Over the years, various patterns have been added and there are now more than 300 recognised winning patterns. Let’s give you a few examples:

  • Double line – Requires two full lines to be completed, of any combination of across, down and diagonal
  • X – Requires two diagonal lines to be completed, forming an ‘X’ shape on the card
  • Blackout – All the numbers on the card need to be covered

Airplane, champagne glass, turtle, ladder, sputnik and triple bingo are examples of a few of the more obscure patterns used. The most important thing to remember is that there is generally only one winner, which can often mean higher jackpots. How much you can win when playing 75 ball bingo really depends on the price of the tickets and how many players are taking part. The more players that opt in to play the higher the prizes. But there are also special promotions to keep a look out for, including guaranteed and progressive jackpots.

The history of playing bingo in the US

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As 75 ball bingo was originally a US bingo game we thought we’d share a little bit of US bingo history. In the early 1920s the game, which had already found a popular place in Europe, was standardised as a carnival game in and around Pittsburgh by a guy called Hugh J Ward. He copyrighted the game and a rulebook was published in 1933. A bingo game was produced which led to the game becoming more popular and was available in two versions at a price of $2 and $1. By the 1940s the Bingo games popularity had spread across the whole of the US. Bingo in the US is mostly staged by churches and charity organisations and the legality of the games and stakes vary depending on local regulations. Commercial bingo enterprises are generally offered by casinos, and only in the state of Nevada, where gambling is legal. Now we’ve explained the basics of 75 ball bingo it’s time to continue with our lesson in bingo lingo. A lesson in bingo lingo – Part Three:

  • Pattern – A predetermined pattern or shape that a player has to cover on a card in order to win the bingo game
  • Payout -The percentage of money a bingo hall pays out to winners in the form of winnings
  • Prepaid bingo game – It’s possible to buy bingo tickets ahead of time for certain games and allow the automatic dauber to mark off the numbers on the card
  • Progressive jackpot – This is a sum of money that grows in size until one lucky winner wins it all
  • RNG – This stands for Random Number Generator, which is a device that randomly selects the numbers, not just for bingo but for a range of casino games and slots
  • Session – A number of bingo games in a row, usually within a certain time frame
  • Side games – These include slots, scratchcards and casino games and are offered as a compliment to the bingo action
  • Speed Bingo – A faster version of the traditional game in which the numbers are called quicker and a smaller pattern will be the winner
  • Tournaments – These are ongoing games that tend to offer bigger and more exciting bingo games