The All Important Card (UK Style)
When it comes to Bingo in the United Kingdom (“Housey Housey” as it was once known way back), one of the more prominent aspects of the game is the Bingo card that it is played on. While longtime Bingo fans enjoy the simplicity of the game’s mechanics, attempting to play the game in another country results in a game that is a little more different than one would expect.
There are quite a few physical differences to the UK Bingo card compared to its United States counterpart. In the United Kingdom, the card (which is also known as a “ticket”) consists of twenty seven spaces spread out over a 9 by 3 card. The layout is set up in a way that the numbers are presented as 9 spaces horizontal, and 3 spaces vertical.
The card numbers on the ticket range from 1 to 90, and there are fifteen numbers on the card (each horizontal row having five numbers and four spaces). The first column only uses the numbers 1 through 9 in play. The second column uses 10 through 19. The third column uses the numbers 20 through 29, and this continues through the fourth through ninth column (which is 80 through 90), until the numbers are fully presented in a randomized manner.
Here’s a typical UK Bingo Card:
Like the United States version, the United Kingdom game uses a writing device called a “Dabber”, or a “Dauber” that is used to mark the Bingo tickets. Players use these specialized markers to cover called out areas of the board. When players mark off all the numbers that are needed to win, they will call out “BINGO” in order to have their ticket verified to see if they are eligible to win a prize. People can win by covering one row, two lines (vertical, although on many tickets, this type of win is impossible), or the entire card (depending on the rules.) And like the US version of the game, players can use a pen, pencil, or whatever they want (Grandma’s red lipstick, anyone?) to cover the spaces called.
While Housey Housey is becoming more modernized and entering the digital age, the Bingo ticket is still as important a part of the experience when played online. Boards are still randomly generated, and are marked with the click of a mouse instead a swipe of the dauber.
May you win that big prize of the game! Good luck!
