What are your chances of winning at bingo? That depends, of course, on the
game. We need to distinguish between coverall and games using any other
patterns, because in coverall the numbers drawn are limited.
When fifty numbers - the maximum for a full payout - are drawn, the odds are 1
in 212,086 for a player with a single card. Those are the best odds that you can
expect for coverall. You might not even do that well.
If you're playing a game in which only forty-nine numbers are drawn, those
winning odds drop to 1 in 407,857. And what about a game in which forty eight
numbers are drawn? For suckers only: you're facing odds of 1 in 799,399. If
nobody wins, and they continue the game for a reduced jackpot, your odds
improve, of course, as the prize money decreases. With every ball drawn, the
odds are about twice as good, an optimist would point out. But a pessimist would
argue that the odds are still heavily against you: 1 in 112,284 for fifty one
balls, 1 in 60,458 for fifty two balls, 1 in 33,081 for fifty three balls. Even
if the caller draws five more numbers, your odds are only 1 in 10,359. By ball
sixty, you're at about 1 in 5,000 or so. Maybe you're starting to feel luckier,
but you're still fighting considerable odds. That's why coverall winners are
rare, unless the caller continues to draw numbers.
As you might imagine, the odds of winning are better when the game pattern uses
fewer squares - and the caller draws numbers until somebody wins.
Whether the pattern is simple or complex, you have to figure in the number of
cards being played in that game. Many players use a half dozen or a dozen cards,
especially in games with higher pay- outs. If there are 200 cards in play, any
single card has a 1 in 200 chance of winning. If you play five cards, your odds
improve, but only slightly, to 1 in 40, but so does your financial investment.
And what if the other 199 players each have five cards as well? (By the way, you
may find people in casinos using the word on, as in 3-on or 6-on. Face is
another name for a card, as well. A 3-on or a 6-on would be a sheet or a strip
with three or six game cards or faces.)
Some people believe that their chances of winning increase proportionately with
the number of cards they play. Although that's true, the advantage is less than
most people expect or hope. Take our example of 200 cards in play. Your odds go
from 1 in 200 to 1 in 40 if you're playing five of those cards rather than a
single card. But consider your odds from another angle: by paying five times as
much to play, you're only decreasing your odds of losing from 199 out of 200 to
195 out of 200. And you're also losing your money five times as fast.
In short, it pays to check out a game and mentally calculate your odds before
laying down your cash and picking up your cards. The more cards you play, the
more interesting the game. But the key is to play where there are fewer cards
competing for that prize.
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