The game that we now know as bingo began in the early 1700s in Italy, and has been growing steadily in popularity around the world ever since. The name ‘Bingo’ was accidentally coined by an American player in the 1930s, who called out ‘Bingo’ in the heat of the moment – he was supposed to call out ‘Beano’. The ensuing hilarity made sure that the name turned from a running joke into the most widely used name for this lottery based game.

In a game of bingo, a string of numbers is pulled out of a container, usually in the form of plastic balls, and the numbers are read out by the bingo caller. To prevent the numbers from being misheard, the numbers are preceded by the bingo language name for that number, such as ‘legs’ for eleven or ‘two fat ladies’ for 88. The players have one or more cards with numbers on them that correlate to the numbers being called out, so if the coloured balls are numbered from one to seventy five, then the numbers on the cards will all be within this range.

If any of the numbers that are being called out turns up on your cards, then you must mark or ‘daub’ that number with a pen. The aim of the game is to mark complete lines of numbers on your cards. There are prizes for being the first to complete one, two, or three lines on a single card. The biggest prizes are usually reserved for the first person to get a ‘full house’, which is a card where all the numbers have been marked. If you are the first person to reach one of these milestones, then you have to call out ‘Bingo’ immediately in order to claim your prize.

Bingo, in its online incarnation, is very similar to the real life game, except that everything is represented on a screen, including your bingo cards and the bingo calls. Also, you usually have to press a button to call ‘Bingo’, as shouting at your computer is unlikely to do the trick.