How to play bingo in steps: the game in ninety seconds
If you only want the short version of how to play bingo, and specifically how to play 90 ball bingo as British halls do, it is this. Everyone has a ticket. A caller draws numbered balls one at a time and reads each one out. When a number that is printed on your ticket is called, you mark it. The first person to finish a row calls out and wins the first prize, and the game carries on until someone has finished two rows, then until someone has marked every number on their ticket. That last stage is the full house, and it ends the game.
Get your ticket
Nine columns, three rows, fifteen numbers. Six tickets make a strip, and a strip uses all 90 numbers exactly once.
Mark the calls
The caller says the number, often with its nickname: "two little ducks, twenty-two". Mark it if it is on your ticket.
Call it out
A line first, then two lines, then all fifteen numbers. The prize goes to whoever claims first, so do not wait.
Everything else in the UK bingo rules exists to make those three steps fair: how the tickets are printed so that nobody holds a luckier card, how the numbers are drawn so that nobody can predict them, and how a claim is checked so that nobody wins by mistake. The sections below take each of those in turn. It is an easy guide to how to play bingo, written for someone who has never set foot in a hall, but it goes deep enough that a regular will learn something about why the game is built the way it is.
What you are given
In a hall you buy a book of tickets for the session, usually printed as strips of six on thin paper in different colours, one colour per game. You mark them with a dabber, a fat felt-tip pen that leaves a coloured circle, although a normal pen works just as well. Online, the tickets appear on screen and the software marks them for you. At home, you can print tickets from a generator that follows the proper rules, which matters more than people expect: a ticket made by putting fifteen random numbers in a grid does not behave like a real one.
What the caller does
The caller runs the game. In a hall the numbers come from a machine that blows or tumbles ninety balls and lifts one at a time into view; the caller reads it, shows it on the board behind them and, by tradition, adds its nickname. "Eyes down" is the signal that the game has started and everyone should be looking at their tickets. The caller also stops the game when someone claims, and reads the claimed numbers back so a checker can confirm them.
The three ways to win
A 90-ball game pays out three times. The first prize is for one line: all five numbers on any one row of one ticket. The second is for two lines: two complete rows on the same ticket. The third, and biggest, is the full house, which means all fifteen numbers on one ticket. The prizes are claimed in order, and the game does not stop between them, so the same player can win more than one stage. Our glossary of bingo terms covers the older words you may hear for each, such as "house" and "the corners".
How a UK bingo ticket is laid out
The British ticket looks simple, but it follows a strict set of rules, and knowing them makes you faster at marking. The grid has nine columns and three rows, so there are 27 squares, and exactly fifteen of them carry a number. The other twelve are blank. Each row has exactly five numbers, and every column holds at least one.
Each column only ever holds numbers from its own range. The first column holds 1 to 9, the second 10 to 19, the third 20 to 29 and so on, up to the ninth column, which holds 80 to 90. That last column has eleven numbers to choose from instead of ten, because 90 has to go somewhere. Inside a column, the numbers always run from smallest at the top to largest at the bottom.
That column rule is the single most useful thing a beginner can learn. When the caller says 57, you do not need to scan the whole ticket: you look straight at the sixth column, and if 57 is not there it is nowhere. Experienced players mark several tickets at once for exactly this reason. The full explanation of why tickets come in strips of six, and how to print your own, is on our bingo tickets page.
The core bingo rules for beginners
Halls add their own house rules, but the core of the game is the same everywhere in Britain. These are the bingo rules for beginners that matter on your first night:
- Mark only what is called. A number counts once the caller has said it. If you mark one early by mistake, and then claim, the claim fails.
- Claim straight away. Call out "Yes", "House" or "Check" loudly, or put your hand up, the moment your line or house is complete. If the caller has already drawn the next number, many halls will not accept the claim.
- Every claim is checked. A floor walker reads your numbers back to the caller, who checks them against the balls drawn. Only then is the prize confirmed.
- Ties are split. If two or more people complete the same prize on the same number, the prize is divided between them. Nobody loses out for being a fraction of a second slower.
- One win per stage. Once a line has been paid, the game moves on to two lines. You cannot claim a second single line on another ticket.
- A missed win is gone. If you had a winning ticket and did not claim, and the game moved on, that prize is lost. Players who miss one are called sleepers.
That is the whole of the 90-ball rulebook as a player experiences it. The version of the rules we set out on the 90 ball bingo page goes further into prize stages, how long a game lasts and what happens with a false claim.
What the numbers are called
Part of the charm of British bingo is the language. For most numbers there is a traditional call, a nickname that the caller says before the number itself. Some rhyme, some describe the shape of the figures and some carry a story from the music hall or the armed forces. A few examples:
Kelly's Eye
Most often traced to military slang for the helmet slit of the Australian outlaw Ned Kelly; the single eye and the single figure line up.
Legs Eleven
The two figures stand side by side like a pair of legs. Traditionally the hall wolf-whistles back.
Two Little Ducks
The pair of 2s look like two ducks on the water. The hall traditionally quacks back.
Halfway There
Forty-five is half of ninety: the exact middle of a UK bingo game.
Clickety Click
The sound of the two sixes said together, often traced to the rhythm of train wheels over rail joints.
Two Fat Ladies
The curves of the two 8s standing side by side. The most recognised call in the British game.
The calls also serve a practical purpose. In a large, noisy hall it is easy to mishear "fifteen" as "fifty", but nobody confuses "legs eleven" with anything else. We have written up every one of the ninety, with the stories behind them and the alternatives still heard today, on our bingo calls page, and there is a trainer there if you want to learn them.
90-ball, 75-ball and the other bingo variants
When people in the UK talk about bingo, they almost always mean 90-ball. It is the game of the halls, the working men's clubs and the seaside holiday park, and it is what this page describes. It is also the main game in Ireland and in Australia, where it is often called housie. But it is not the only version, and the bingo rules, patterns and variations differ enough that it is worth knowing which one you are playing.
75-ball bingo is the American game. The card is a five by five square with the letters B-I-N-G-O across the top and a free space in the centre. Instead of lines and a full house, each game is played to a pattern, such as the four corners or a letter X, announced before the game starts. If you want to learn how to play 75-ball bingo for beginners, our 75 ball bingo page explains the card and the patterns, with real photographs of American cards and balls.
80-ball and 30-ball are shorter games that some online rooms run. An 80-ball card is four by four and a 30-ball card is three by three, so they finish faster. Irish bingo can mean the 90-ball game as played in parish halls across Ireland, or a separate family game played with ordinary playing cards; both are covered on our Irish bingo page.
Playing online and in a UK bingo hall
The rules are the same online as in a hall, but the experience is not. In a hall, the game is social and physical. You buy your book at the desk, find a seat, and the session runs to a printed programme of games, often with a break for tea. The caller sets the pace, you mark your own tickets, and you have to be alert enough to claim. The noise drops to almost nothing at "eyes down", and a shout of "House!" can be heard across a room of several hundred people.
Online, the software does the work. The numbers are drawn by a random number generator rather than a machine of balls, tickets are marked automatically, and a win is paid without anyone needing to claim. Rooms often have a chat host who greets players and keeps the conversation going. That automatic marking means you cannot miss a win, but it also removes the skill of keeping up, which is why many people who learned in a hall still prefer paper. Whichever way you play, commercial bingo in Great Britain is only for people aged 18 and over.
Bingo tips and etiquette
It is worth being honest about bingo tips. The draw is random, every number is equally likely to come next, and every ticket in a properly printed strip has exactly the same chance as any other. There is no system for choosing tickets, no seat that is luckier than another and no way to predict the next ball. The only thing that changes your chance of winning is how many tickets you are playing against how many are in play in total, and our page on bingo odds works that out properly.
What you can improve is your play. Learn the column ranges so that you find numbers instantly. Start with one strip and add more only when you can keep up without missing calls. Keep your dabber in your hand and your eyes on your tickets rather than the board. And claim loudly and early; a late claim is the most common way that beginners lose a win they had.
Hall etiquette is simple and mostly about quiet. Talk between games, not during them. Keep phones on silent. If you are unsure of something, ask a member of staff between games rather than the person next to you during one. And it is good manners to congratulate a winner, even through gritted teeth when you were one number away.
Playing bingo at home
You do not need a hall to play. A home game only needs three things: tickets, a fair way to draw the numbers, and someone to call them. Our free bingo caller draws numbers from 1 to 90 without repeats and can read out the traditional nickname for each one, so the person calling can play too. The ticket generator prints valid UK strips. For birthdays, Christmas, baby showers and children's parties, the party bingo page has games that swap numbers for pictures, words or questions, and the bingo card generator prints the cards. For a quiz night, the bingo quiz page has 30 questions that play as trivia bingo.
If you are playing for fun with family, keep the prizes small and let everyone win something over the evening. A family game where nothing is at stake is also the best way to learn how to play bingo before you ever go to a hall, because nobody minds when you ask what a call means.
A short history of bingo in Britain
The game is older than its name. It descends from the Italian lottery of the sixteenth century, spread through Europe as lotto and tombola, and reached the British armed forces as housey-housey, which soldiers and sailors played through both world wars. The name bingo came from the United States in the late 1920s. In Britain the turning point was the Betting and Gaming Act 1960, which allowed commercial bingo clubs; as television emptied the cinemas, chains converted them into bingo halls, which is why so many British halls sit inside grand former picture palaces like the Granada Tooting shown above. The full story is on our history of bingo page.
Playing responsibly
Most people play bingo for the company and the game, not the money, and a night out at a hall costs less than many other evenings out. But when you pay to play for cash prizes it is gambling, and it is worth setting a budget before you start and sticking to it. If gambling stops being fun, free and confidential help is available from BeGambleAware. This site is an informational reference to the rules and traditions of the game. We do not run games, take bets or link to gambling operators.