Bingo is different from other casino games in that you don't make bets on individual games. In most cases, you purchase an admission pack, which includes a set of game cards and entitles you to play during a specific session. Usually, you can buy additional cards or packs of cards for a relatively small fee. For example, a standard admission pack might include two cards each for four regular games, two special games, and the jackpot game. You can then purchase extra cards for each of the games in the session for an additional charge.

Admission rates and prize payouts vary from operator to operator. Each bingo hall will have a brochure or flier describing its admission packages and prices, as well as the prizes for each type of game and a disclosure of the “hold,” or the amount the house keeps back to cover operating expenses and profits. On average, high-stakes bingo halls pay out in prizes about 75 percent of what they take in from admissions and other sales.

Strategic and Dead Squares

There are twenty-four numbered spaces on a bingo card. Of these, sixteen are considered “strategic squares” because they can be used with the free space in the middle to create a traditional bingo. The other eight squares are considered “dead squares.” The strategic squares for traditional bingo — a straight line up and down, across or diagonally — are the first, third, and fifth squares on the top and bottom rows, the middle three on the second and fourth rows, and all four numbered squares on the third row.

The dead squares come into play when you fill a “hard-way” bingo, or one that doesn't include the free space. They also are used in special patterns such as coverall or blackout, where you have to cover every square, and postage stamp, where you cover a two-by-two area to win.

◄ A “postage stamp” pattern

◄ A “butterfly” bingo pattern

Identifying Patterns

Some experts recommend looking for certain number groups within the columns — numbers 1 through 10 in the B column, for example, or 29 through 39 in the N column. These recommendations are usually based on the expert's observation of which numbers in a given column tend to come up most often. The fact is that the odds of any given number coming up during any given bingo game are always the same. For the first number drawn, the odds are 1 in 75; for the second number drawn, the odds are 1 in 74; for the third number, the odds are 1 in 73; and so on until a bingo is called. As with a coin toss, what happens in one game has no effect on the next, and any clusters of repeat numbers in consecutive bingo games are like clusters of “heads” in consecutive coin tosses.

Likewise, don't be fooled into thinking that so-called lucky numbers, like 7 or 11, increase your odds of winning. In fact, 7 and 11, both in the B column, show up on about 20 percent of all winning bingo cards, so they are no “luckier” than any other numbers in the field.