- The predecessor to Bingo was a game called "Beano" and it was played with dried beans.
- Mathematician, Carl Leffler, is rumoured to have gone crazy while figuring out the number combinations for the original 6000 bingo cards.
- Bingo is known as the greatest fundraising game in the world.
- There are one million, four hundred thousand different possible bingo card combinations.
Bingo is one of those age old games that draw people together, it is always a fun outing with players interacting with the bingo caller, screaming out BINGO when they have completed a line, full house or whatever version is being played at the time.
Players love the bingo calls, enthusiastically acting them out as in “duck with a crutch” 27 = quack thud, “legs 11″ = wolf whistles all around, and “sweet sixteen” = kiss, kiss, kiss. The more players there are the noisier it gets, bingonistas just lap this stuff up but a good time is had by all with laughter ringing throughout the bingo hall.
It is easy to spot the seasoned bingonistas as they set out their stands for the cards, their daubers and any lucky charms they strew around them on the table. Some go as far as bringing their own snacks complete with the snack bowls whilst others prefer to buy their eats at the venue.
A bingo session usually lasts a couple of hours, and bingo cards are bought at the beginning of the evening. Rounds are played for different prizes or cash growing in value as jackpots and snowballs are played during the session. Some bigger bingo halls even have holidays and cars as prizes, drawing huge crowds.
VivaBingo have set up bingo halls in Pretoria and Gauteng with more branches opening soon in KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga and Northwest Province. For smaller venues check your local community centres as many of them run bingo evenings with part of the takings going to charity or for building school classrooms.
Wherever you choose to play, have fun, don’t take it too seriously and check the bingo calls below for reference.
1 – Kelly’s Eye
2 – One Little Duck
3 – Cup of tea
4 – Knock at the Door
5 – Man Alive
6 – Tom’s tricks
7 – Lucky Seven
8 – One Fat Lady / Garden Gate
9 – Doctor’s Orders
10 – 10 Downing Street
11 – Legs Eleven
12 – One Dozen
13 – Unlucky for Some / Baker’s Dozen
14 – Valentines Day
15 – Young and keen / Rugby Team
16 – Sweet Sixteen
17 – Dancing Queen
18 – Coming of Age
19 – Goodbye Teens
20 – One Score/ Blind 20
21 – Key of the Door
22 – Two Little Ducks / All the Twos
23 – Thee and Me
24 – Two dozen
25 – Duck and Dive
26 – Half a crown
27 – Little duck with a Crutch
28 – Over Weight
29 – Rise and Shine
30 – Blind 30
31 – Get up and Run
32 – Buckle my Shoe
33 – All the Threes / All the Feathers
34 – Ask for More
35 – Jump and Jive
36 – Three Dozen
37 – A Flea in Heaven
38 – Christmas Cake
39 – Those Famous Steps
40 – Naughty Forty
41 – Time for Fun
42 – Winnie the Pooh
43 – Down on your Knees
44 – Droopy Drawers / All the Fours
45 – Halfway There
46 – Up to Tricks
47 – Four and Seven
48 – Four Dozen
49 – P.C. / Copper
50 – Half a Century/ Blind 50
51 – Tweak of the Thumb
52 – Danny La Rue/ Weeks in a Year
53 – Stuck in the Tree
54 – Clean the Floor
55 – Snakes Alive / All the Fives
56 – Was she worth it?
57 – Heinz Varieties
58 – Make them Wait
59 – Brighton Line
60 – Five Dozen / Blind 60
61 – Bakers Bun
62 – Turn on the Screw / Tickety Boo
63 – Tickle Me
64 – Red Raw / The Beatles’ Number
65 – Old Age Pension
66 – Clickety Click / All the Sixes
67 – Made in Heaven r
68 – Saving Grace
69 – Either Way Up /The Same Both Ways
70 – Three Score and Ten / Blind 70
71 – Bang on the Drum
72 – Six Dozen / A Crutch and a Duck
73 – Crutch and a flea / Queen Bee
74 – Candy Store
75 – Strive and Strive
76 – Was She Worth It
77 – All the Sevens / Two Little Crutches
78 – Heavens Gate
79 – One More Time
80 – /Blind 80
81 – Stop and Run
82 – Fat lady with a Duck
83 – Time for Tea / Ethel’s Ear
84 – Seven Dozen
85 – Staying Alive
86 – Between the Sticks
87 – Fat lady with a Crutch
88 – Two fat ladies / All the Eights
89 – Nearly there
90 – Top of the Shop / Blind 90 / End of the Line