75 Ball and 90 Ball Bingo Card Variations
Bingo can be divided into two separate groups: there is the 90 ball bingo version and the 75 ball bingo version. The style of the game has similarities where numbers get called out and then bingo players mark the numbers of their cards if they have it. There are however differences between the two games.
Bingo cards are a necessary item when playing bingo and knowing which card you have will tell you which version of bingo you are about to play. Another thing to remember is the name of the game refers to how many bingo balls are used in that game. 75 = 75 balls and 90 = 90 balls.
75 Ball Bingo
The bingo cards used in this variation of bingo are made up of a 5x5 grid. But however, there are only 24 numbers on a card; the 25 square is called a “free space” which is always used in the centre of the bingo card.
There is usually the word “BINGO” written above the columns of the card where each letter represents a column. B represents column 1, I represents column 2 and so on. The reason for this is so players can easily navigate to where each number will be when the numbers are being called out. The caller will then saying something like B – 3. The player will then know to look at the B column to see if they have that number.
75 ball bingo can have an endless number of patterns that need to be filled to win the game. Unlike 90 ball bingo were the patterns always keep the same 75 ball usually changes each game.
90 Ball Bingo
The bingo cards used in this version of bingo are made up of a 9x3 grid. The cards then has 27 squares on them but they only contain 15 bingo numbers scattered amongst the squares. There is no free square on this card either.
The columns are not represented by any letters but the format of the card is simple enough. The card is sent out in tens. Colum 1 will have numbers 1-9; the second column will have numbers 10 – 19 and so on right up until the number 90.
90 ball bingo is always played in the following manor: 1 line, 2 lines and a full house. A full house refers to all numbers on a card being filled. 1 line means a horizontal line must be filled and 2 lines means 2 of the 3 horizontal lines must be filled. The term full house can sometimes be referred to as “blackout” this is the term that is usually mentioned when getting every number on a 75 ball bingo card but can be used instead of the term full house.
