rules, guides and strategy

Posts in category Bingo

Bingo (UK Version)

Feb10
2011 Written by admin

The mention of Bingo in the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries brings to mind certain images of elderly ladies heading down to the Bingo hall on an evening, joining a host of other elderly ladies, playing Bingo sitting at exactly the same seats they’ve sat on for years and then getting fisha and chips on the way home.  This image certainly isn’t fair now and it probably wasn’t twenty years ago either.  State of the art premises host players of all ages and experience for what’s genuinely a fun night out – I know from experience.

Anyway Bingo, and this post is prompted by the recent resurgence of the game in several Las Vegas casinos.  Historically the game did not develop in the U.K, although the word Bingo appears to have received it’s first usage there in 1776.  It is thought to derive from an Italian game called “Il Giuoco del Lotto d’Italia” which has been played in Italy for almost 500 years.  Versions were played around mainland Europe for hundreds of years and in Germany it was used as an educational tool in the 19th century.

It’s a similar game to Keno in that the player receives a game card similar to that shown below.  The card contains 27 boxes in three rows and fifteen numbers randomly selected will

UK Bingo Card

printed on the card.  The numbers are from 1 to 90 and are ordered as follows: the first column contains the any numbers between 1 and 9, the second any between 10 and 19 and so on until the last column which will display any numbers between 80 and 90.

Players may play as many cards as they wish and experienced players can handle many.  Balls are usually automatically selected from a machine and traditionally a caller will read out the numbers.  Historically certain numbers are given nicknames (88 – two fat ladies) but with decline of live callers and the introduction of automated systems this tradition is dyiing out.

A full house (all numbers matched) is the ultimate prize for one card game but smaller prizes are also awarded during the game for completing one line or two lines before anyone else.  The player attracts the attention of a runner by shouting Bingo or something similar and the ticket is checked before the cash prize is awarded.

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Keno

Feb09
2011 Written by admin

Anyone familiar with the traditional game of Bingo will already have a good idea of what makes Keno such a popular gambling pastime.  The name Keno is largely accepted as having French roots, being a derivation of the word quinze, meaning five.  However the game itself almost certainly has Chinese roots but how far back the references date and how reliable the stories are are certainly open to debate.

We can say with some certainty that until the Portuguese administration in Macau legalised gambling houses in that colony in 1847, there is absolutely no evidence of any reliable previous documentation describing a game such as Keno.  There are some interesting tales relating to the ancient Chinese, not least the rumour that revenue from the game funded the building of the Great Wall of China but there’s really nothing to substantiate stories of this type.

However the Chinese were the first to play a similar game, even if somewhat later and Chinese labourers brought the game with them to the United States when they helped to build the First Transcontinental Railway in the 1860s.  They played it using a selection of 80 or so Chinese characters.

How’s the game played then?  The player picks numbers from a game card containing the

Keno Card

numbers 1 to 80.  They must choose at least four and no more than ten.  The card is then deposited at a booth and a receipt issued.  Ball selection then begins and this is usually in the form of a lottery style machine in which an automated blower picks numbered balls.  The player is trying to match up the balls they have picked with the numbers chosen by the machine.

The amount of money won depends on the number of balls picked, the number of balls matched and the type of bet laid by the player and these can be relatively complex.  The continuous, automated nature of Keno means that if a player has won they have a limited time to collect their winnings, although casinos are not as strict as they used to be regarding the time limits.

Lastly it’s worth mentioning that odds wise, it’s one of the worst games you can play.

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