Bingo cards are used to play various bingo games, including U.S. style bingo and UK style Housie. Cards are usually made of cardboard or non-reusable paper, but more and more bingo halls are beginning to use computerized cards. Bingo cards are printed in various styles (see below) with randomized bingo numbers. As bingo numbers are called, players either check off the boxes with a pen or marker, or use a bingo daber/dauber to stamp the box.

U.S. bingo cards

U.S. bingo cards are 5x5 squares, with the columns labeled B-I-N-G-O and with spots contains numbers between 1 and 75. The center square typically is a free spot, and often has the word "free" printed on it.

  • Column B contains numbers 1-15
  • Column I contains numbers 16 - 30
  • Column N contains numbers 31 - 45
  • Column G contains numbers 46 - 60
  • Column O contains numbers 61 - 75
  • There are 16,396,380 different combinations of numbers available, so far the most anyone has made is 9000.

UK Bingo Cards

UK Bingo, or Housie, cards are usually called tickets and differ greatly from U.S. Bingo cards. The cards contain three rows and nine columns. Each row contains five numbers and four blank spaces. Each column contains one, two or three numbers.

  • Column 1 contains numbers 1 - 9
  • Column 2 contains numbers 10 - 19
  • Column 3 contains numbers 20 - 29
  • Column 4 contains numbers 30 - 39
  • Column 5 contains numbers 40 - 49
  • Column 6 contains numbers 50 - 59
  • Column 7 contains numbers 60 - 69
  • Column 8 contains numbers 70 - 79
  • Column 9 contains numbers 80 - 90

Other Types of Cards

  • Flimsies
  • Break Open

Flimsies

Flimsies are a type of bingo cards printed on thin sheets of paper. They are typically printed with three cards on a single sheet, but also come in other formats:

  • One card per sheet
  • Two cards per sheet
  • Four cards per sheet
  • Six cards per sheet
  • Nine cards per sheet

Flimsies costs $1-$2 per sheet and a win on a flimsy on a "special" game usually pays quite a bit more than a win on a "regular" game.