What is this pattern which is used in a game of bingo? A pattern in a game of bingo is made up of a combination of squares on a bingo card or ticket. Whether the number is marked by the Auto-daub feature or marked manually, what the player is actually doing is covering a square which would ultimately make up the winning pattern. The covered squares are the building blocks of the patterns used in a game of bingo. To be precise, these patterns are dependent on type of the bingo game being played or simply the number of rows and columns of squares on the bingo card.
In a 90-ball bingo card there are 3 rows where each row five squares filled with numbers and four squares which are left empty. This has limited the number of winning combinations for a bingo to one row, two rows or three rows where a row is complete when you are able to mark all the 5 numbers in that row. The three rows together are also called a full house. The above limitation results in the fact that you can have only 3 winners for each round of the 90-ball bingo game which may not be a very attractive proposition when a large number of players are taking part in the game and who may not be able to claim a bingo over a large number of rounds. Players who are not able to win a bingo for long periods would soon lose interest and move away to a different site and a different type of game where the chances of winning a bingo is more. To retain their players the online sites offering the 90-ball game of bingo have come up with more winning combinations other than the single line, two lines or full house options. They also offer multiple bingos for the 2, 3, 4 or 5 numbers on a single line where covering all 5 numbers means that you have completed one line. They also offer multiple bingos for completing 2 lines also but only one bingo for the full house or 3 lines.
The bingo card in the 75-ball bingo game offers the maximum number of possibilities for creating a pattern due to its 5×5 square matrix. Since all the squares are filled with numbers and with the free square in the centre contributing to make a winning pattern, different kinds of patterns can be created for this game. Thus all the five squares in all 5 columns, 5 rows and 2 diagonals can be used to make any pattern. Another possibility which is commonly used is the completion of all four corners of the bingo card. Patterns in the form of letters U,T, L and others are also used along with patterns like zig-zags, smileys, checker-boards and blackouts or coveralls and many others in this 75-ball bingo game.
The bingo game should have maximum number of winning chances as well as take minimum time to complete to make it more interesting. This requirement has given rise to the 80-ball game which uses a 4×4 square matrix and the more recent 30-ball game which uses a 3×3 square matrix where some of the patterns used is the same as those used in the 75-ball game but is much faster.
Gamble Aware (www.gambleaware.co.uk) is managed by the Responsibility in Gambling Trust, an independent charity which funds treatment, research and education about responsible gambling. The website has been developed by a Task Force made up of representatives from the Gambling Commission, DCMS, academia and industry.