Talk:Bingo (American version)

Opening heading
It has been proposed the this article be merged with Housie in Bingo. Please discuss here. (Please avoid confusing discussion by making comments about the merger only at Talk:Bingo (disambiguation). Madeinsane 00:52, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Rules
These bingo rules are not the same as the bingo rules I am familiar with. Where I come from:


 * The card bears a five-by-five array of numbers (or several such arrays), except for the middle cell, which is a "free space".
 * The numbers range from 1 to 75. The left-hand column of the card has numbers in the range 1 to 15; the second column from the left has numbers in the range 16 to 30, etc. Above the columns are the letters B-I-N-G-O.
 * Numbers are called as "I-18", "O-71", etc.
 * The "canonical" win is any row, column, or diagonal. However, variations are common.

The rules listed above appear to be the most common rules in the United States.

I added something about what I called North American rules, but which are really the rules in southern Ontario, which are the only rules I know, so if anyone knows better than me about American rules, please fix that part up. Trontonian 17:49, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * I changed North American to Canadian and American. I have no idea what Mexican bingo is like. Trontonian

Mexican bingo is referred to as chalupa, and uses the same basic rules as for American bingo. However, the playing card is a 4X4 array, with images of simple items used instead of numbers. Images are such as "El Catrin" (The Gentleman), La Botella (The Bottle), El Alacran (The Scorpion), etc. Images are called from a deck of card which contains 56 different images. This simpler set of possibilities allows for a quicker pace. Typically the winner of the round has the option of calling the cards for the next round.


 * I think you're talking about Loteria. ~ trialsanderrors 22:11, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

Mechanised bingo, and basic rules
I've added a little about mechanised bingo and more about the rules of bingo. It would take a readjustment of the page to include all the major rules for bingo. Also I am only adding what I know from Working in the Bingo industry as a main stage caller, so all of my info is from UK bingo. If you want to know more or have any articles about bingo you want adding to just let me know.

Arlechinio 00:10, 4 Sep 2004 (UTC)

For Bingo calls, I seem to recall one '__ dozen'. Obviously if I could recal how many dozen, I would know which number...- — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:8807:2100:6b1:adaf:dd01:5036:2fcb (talk) 07:24, 25 March 2020 (UTC)

Politically correct bingo sayings..?
Has the kill-joy PC brigade in the UK banned sayings, like "two fat ladies" for the number 88?- — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.18.198.157 (talk) 19:53, 26 October 2005 (UTC)
 * No, they still say it. Where did you get that from?--Jcvamp 19:03, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
 * They don't say it in most commercial bingo halls in the UK, such as those owned by Gala Bingo, but this is mainly because of time efficiency, rather than political correctness. When it is played in church halls, social clubs and other similar settings, the nicknames are retained. There is a link between the use of an electronic RNG to generate numbers, and not using the nicknames. Madeinsane 19:58, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Housie slang?
I realize that they are similar games, but should "housie" slang be in the housie article instead?


 * It seems to me that all variants probably ought to be in the same article, as they're not that different. — sjorford (talk)  15:28, 20 April 2006 (UTC)


 * I would support the articles being recombined. The differences are too minor to justify separate articles. 2005 20:10, 20 April 2006 (UTC)


 * There is a more extensive discussion on the talk:Bingo (disambiguation) page. Madeinsane 20:00, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Online bingo
Is there online bingo in the U. S. or Canada? I left the bit about it in because I don;t know. I removed the references to Scandinavian games, though, because they're obviously not relevant. John FitzGerald 01:32, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
 * Online bingo in the US does currently exist but soon may not. The online gambling industry worldwide has taken a big blow since the amendments to the Safe Port Act, passed by the US Congress in Fall 2006 and subsequently signed into law by the President. See this link and the main Online bingo and Online gambling articles. Madeinsane 15:01, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

History
Where and when did it originate?Andycjp 08:58, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Etymology
is it useful to have an etymology for the term? I came to this article to check if my hunch was correct. I mean, I have no sources or anything, but it seems to me that "bingo" comes from the Latin vinco, "I win". seems that Bs and Vs are pretty similar.... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.251.230.51 (talk) 16:28, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

Prostitution
Is this bit really necessary? It is at the least uncited, and at the worst a dumb joke. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.111.80.64 (talk) 23:42, 17 August 2010 (UTC)

I am removing it and placing it here if anyone can cite it. In any case, it doesn't belong in the lead.Jbower47 (talk) 18:21, 26 August 2010 (UTC)


 * 'Bingo erupted on the prostitution scene in the 1980's when senior citizens would get together and play strip bingo.' —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jbower47 (talk • contribs) 18:22, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Alleged WP:EL violation deleted from External links section
On 23 March 2011, Johnuniq removed the following link from the External links section:


 * Defensive omnivore bingo

Johnuniq's stated reason in the edit summary of his edit was "per WP:EL"

I looked at WP:EL and don't see why the deleted link was deemed to be something that should be deleted. Could somebody explain this? Wideangle (talk) 19:27, 23 March 2011 (UTC)

Restore "Defensive omnivore bingo"
On 24 June 2011, 129.125.101.92 removed the "Defensive omnivore bingo" item from the External links section with the comment "omnivore bingo has nothing to do with the number game this page discusses". My response is that Defensive omnivore bingo is as closely related to standard bingo as the items listed in the "Variations" and "Other forms" sections. I am therefore restoring "Defensive omnivore bingo" to the External links section. Wideangle (talk) 23:53, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

cm se juega eso??? nose cn quien juego ayuda xfa  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.8.123.85 (talk) 04:07, 6 October 2011 (UTC)

Reference to Zynga
The page header contains information about the invention of the game in 1929 and it goes straight to... Zynga. I guess there are a GREAT number of versions of the game that are far more relevant than this one. This reference to a version of the game by a social network game company seems useless to me. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.177.173.92 (talk) 01:02, 4 March 2012 (UTC)


 * It's actually useful. If you don't like it near the top of the article (this goes for any Wikipedian who sees this) please move it to an appropriate section. Georgia guy (talk) 01:06, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

A lot of things are useful. I think the question here was ethics. Many online game companies make Bingo. I found the reference offensive when I came to the page, so simply removed it. If you're looking for manufacturers of a game that's 500 y/o, that's what Google is for. Calling a spade a spade, and a conflict of interest just that- a COI. Ninavizz 08:20, 13 March 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ninavizz (talk • contribs)

Other variation: Drive-in bingo
In Nova Scotia there is a drive-in movie theater that has a fun variation. Same rules, but you tune your radio to the frequency of the theater (as if you were going to watch a movie) and they call the numbers over the radio. You shout bingo by honking your car horn. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.238.86.148 (talk) 16:49, 7 January 2014 (UTC)

Electronic Bingo
Class II machines are typical called Bingo machines because of the software structure, but these games look like a regular slot machine. Where Electronic Bingo or Video Bingo should refer to an electronic video bingo game, where you can play bingo electronically. Maybe there is a better way to post this. --Edelg003 (talk) 22:24, 15 December 2014 (UTC)

He went on to copyright "Bingo"
"He went on to copyright 'Bingo'" ... what is this claim supposed to mean? Nobody copyrighted the word "Bingo". A word can't be copyrighted. This appears to be an unsupported claim, and it doesn't correspond with the fact that "Bingo" cannot be copyrighted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.68.134.1 (talk) 16:21, 18 June 2015 (UTC)

Article fails
Mom (an inveterate Bingo player) asked me how the game came about, and what the actual chances of winning are for various games. I recommended Wikipedia, and she found the article disappointing, a sentiment with which I agree. So, a few open questions:

Why 25 spaces? In particular, why five columns of five numbers? Why the central "free" spot?

The statistics ought to be laid out more completely, rather than just dumping some (unexplained) stats math & a Really Big Number on readers. Spell it out in English! How many five-number sets are possible in each column? How many variations of each set are possible? Similarly, how many collections of 24 numbers could in theory exist without repetition? and how many variations can appear of those same 24 numbers?

It boggles me somewhat that carnivals could have produced these cards themselves back in the 1920s. At the same time, in modern times I can't imagine how it is that these randomized layouts of randomly selected numbers can be so readily printed.

John Scarne addressed Bingo cheating. How is card production audited? Are there laws that regulate this? What sorts of controls are used on the cards to prevent someone from smuggling in their own cards?

There are parlors that don't "read back" the numbers to verify a winning combination, instead calling out (as in the U.K. version) a security code printed on the particular card that somehow validates that the card does indeed contain the numbers that have been called to achieve that combination. How the heck (briefly) does THAT work?

Some years back, Paul Harvey presented a long The Rest of the Story segment where he talked about a wealthy man who hired a renowned mathematician to produce these randomized collections of numbers, one after the other, and worked him hard for years, paying very well but eventually driving the mathematician into a lunatic asylum. Given the gazillions of possible cards, this seems somewhat unlikely but it stuck in my head & is possibly still floating around somewhere as an urban legend, particularly if it was included in either of the volumes collecting Harvey's tall tales. Weeb Dingle (talk) 18:17, 13 January 2019 (UTC)


 * In order to use the "security code" that you mention, the image of each Bingo card that is in play must be recorded. These images may be stored as a sequence of 25 numbers that are the numbers that will appear on a Bingo card. Since only 24 number are required for a card, one of the values (normally the center of the 25 numbers) will be used to record the location of a star on the Bingo card. The sequences of numbers are stored on a direct access file with each card in a specific location in the file. When the cards are printed, the center square (the "free space") contains the location of the card in the file. Thus, when a player calls "Bingo", the game host (caller) asks for the number in the center square. Software then accesses the card file at the location given by that number and presents the caller (and all players) with the image of the Bingo card held by the player who called "Bingo". By keeping a record of the Bingo numbers called, the software is able to identify whether or not a specific card is a winner. Gggustafson (talk) 20:41, 7 February 2023 (UTC)

Numbers at top of page
What do the numbers at the top of the bingo game mean and what do you do with them

Dee — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:8807:2100:6B1:ADAF:DD01:5036:2FCB (talk) 07:24, 25 March 2020 (UTC)

"History of Bingo" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect History of Bingo and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 September 27 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Steel1943 (talk) 17:24, 27 September 2022 (UTC)

"Christmas bingo" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Christmas bingo and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 September 27 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Steel1943 (talk) 17:26, 27 September 2022 (UTC)