Bingo (US)

Bingo is a game of chance where randomly-selected numbers are drawn and players match those numbers to those appearing on 5x5 matrices which are printed or electronically represented and are known as "cards." The first person to have a card where the drawn numbers form a specified pattern is the winner and calls out the word - "BINGO!!!" to alert others and inform the caller of the win. Note: The card must first be properly checked for accuracy before the "win" is officially confirmed at which time the prize is secured and a new game is begun. Bingo is a game used for legalized gambling in some countries. Many Bingo Halls exist in the United States of America. Smoking in bingo halls is currently a topic of much debate.

The version of the game described in this article is played in the United States and Canada. A very similar game called housie is played in India, New Zealand, Australia, and the UK (where it is called Bingo). This game differs only in ticket layout and calling.

Description of the game

Each bingo player is given a card marked with a grid containing a unique combination of numbers and, in some countries, blank spaces. The winning pattern to be formed on the card is announced. On each turn, a non-player known as the caller randomly selects a numbered ball from a container and announces the number to all the players. The ball is then set aside so that it cannot be chosen again. Each player searches his card for the called number, and if he finds it, marks it. The element of skill in the game is the ability to search one's card for the called number in the short time before the next number is called.

The caller continues to select and announce numbers until the first player forms the agreed pattern (one line, two lines, full house) on their card and shouts out the name of the pattern or bingo. One of the most common patterns, called full card, blackout and cover-all simply consists of marking all the numbers on the card. Other common patterns are single line, two lines, the four corners, centre cross, L, T, Y, postage stamp (2x2 and in a corner) inner square (4 × 4), roving square (3 × 3), and roving kite (a 3 × 3 diamond). Lines can be made horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Inner and roving squares and kites must be completely filled; roving squares and kites may be made anywhere on the card.

Bingo cards

Canadian and American bingo cards are flat pieces of cardboard or non-reusable paper which contain 25 squares arranged in five vertical and five horizontal rows; Dual dab, or "double-action" cards have two numbers in each square. Each space in the grid contains a number, except for the centre square, which is considered filled. The highest number used is 75. The letters B, I, N, G, O are pre-printed above the five vertical columns, with one letter appearing above each column. The center space is marked "free." The printed numbers on the card correspond to the following arrangement: 1 to 15 in the B column; 16 to 30 in the I column; 31 to 45 in the N column; 46 to 60 in the G column and 61 to 75 in the O column.

There are 552,446,474,061,128,648,601,600,000 (five hundred fifty-two septillion, four hundred forty-six sextillion, four hundred seventy-four quintillion, sixty-one quadrillion, one hundred twenty-eight trillion, six hundred forty-eight billion, six hundred one million, six hundred thousand) possible arrangements of the numbers on a bingo card.

Each card has a unique serial number to permit quick verification by computer.

Culture

Games often have multiple bingos — for example, the players may first play for a single line, then after that is called continue playing for a full card, then for a consolation full card.

Players often play multiple cards for each game; thirty is not an unusual number. Because of the large numbers of cards played by each player, most halls have the players sit at tables to which they often fasten their cards with adhesive tape. To mark cards faster the players usually use special markers called dabbers. At commercial halls, after calling the number the caller then displays the next number on a television monitor; bingo cannot be called until that number is called aloud, however. The numbers already called and the patterns being played are also displayed on electric signs.

Bingo is often used as an instructional tool in American primary schools and in teaching English as a foreign language in many countries. Typically, the numbers are replaced with beginning reader words (such as those drawn from the Dolch word lists), pictures, or unsolved math problems. Recently many teachers have taken to using software to automate the creation of bingo cards, as it is slow and laborious to do it by hand for large numbers of cards.

History

Bingo can be traced back to a game called Lotto, played in Italy in 1530. The bingo name comes from a corruption of the name Beano, the name of a form of bingo played in the United States in the 1920s. Beano was so called because beans were used to cover the numbers. The name of the game was changed to "Bingo" when an excited player called out "bingo" instead of "beano." The name stuck

Christmas bingo

Each player brings three presents to the event. The presents should arrive at the facility wrapped and hidden in a brown paper bag; it is important that no other participant knows which presents each other player brought. After all participants have arrived, the presents are taken out of the undistinguished bags and put in the center of a circle formed by the players.

Before play begins, each participant receives a blank bingo card with 25 squares. Each player then fills in their card by putting any number between 1 and 40 in each empty box. No number should appear more than once on any card.

Play begins as a caller - who can also be playing - picks a number out of a hat. Each person who has that number on their card crosses the number off and selects a present from the center. After each person who had the called number has taken a gift from the center, the caller picks another number. Play continues as before until all of the presents have been selected from the center. At this point with each number called a player must 'steal' one from another player.

Play ends when the caller has picked all the numbers. Each player then gets to keep each present that they ended the game with.

The business of bingo

In the US, the game is primarily staged by churches or charity organizations. Their legality and stakes vary by state regulation. In some states, bingo halls are rented out to sponsoring organizations, and such halls often run games almost every day. Church-run games, however, are normally weekly affairs held on the church premises. These games are usually played for modest stakes, although the final game of a session is frequently a coverall game that offers a larger jackpot prize for winning within a certain quantity of numbers called; a progressive jackpot may increase per session until it is won.

Commercial bingo games in the US are primarily offered by casinos (and then only in the state of Nevada), and by Native American bingo halls, which are often housed in the same location as Indian run casinos. In Nevada, bingo is usually offered only by casinos that cater to local gamblers, and not the famous tourist resorts. They will usually offer several two-hour sessions daily, with relatively modest stakes except for coverall jackpots. Station Casinos, a chain of locals-oriented casinos in Las Vegas, offers a special game each session that ties all of its properties together with a large progressive jackpot. Native American games are typically offered for only one or two sessions a day, and are often played for higher stakes than charity games in order to draw players from distant places. Some also offer a special progressive jackpot game that may tie together players from multiple bingo halls.

As well as bingo played "in house", the larger commercial operators play some games linked by telephone across several, perhaps dozens, of their clubs. This increases the prize money, but greatly reduces the chance of winning due to the much greater number of players.

Bingo halls are sometimes linked together (as by Loto Quebec in Canada) in a network to provide alternative winning structures and bigger prizes.

Bingo is also the basis for online games sold through licensed lotteries. Tickets are sold as for Lotto, and the players get receipts with their numbers arranged as on a bingo card. The daily or weekly draw is normally broadcast on TV. These games offers higher prizes and it is typically more difficult to win.

The Bingo logic is frequently used on scratch card games. The numbers are pre-drawn for each card and hidden until the card is scratched. In lotteries with online networks the price is electronically confirmed to avoid fraud based on physical fixing.

Buz-word Bingo

Picking up on the Matteo identifying 'Creative Clusters' as one of the key buz-words of recent years, a clever operator in this domain is someone called Simon Evans who about four years ago started 'Creative Clusters Ltd' based around a yearly conference on the creative clusters 'idea'. He originally raised money and executed the first conf in Dublin (I think) it is now an annual and well attended event and a successful company (Yes it makes money!). There are of course many events like this which are quite expensive to attend and interestingly the only kind of people rarely found in attendance is anyone who actually makes anything, certainly not artists or even any real business people. It is full of policy wonks and consultants and wakademics (usually all three combined).Many of those who attend are VERY far from stupid. They are extremely familiar with the the kind of radical critiques circulating on this list. Like all well bred ideological cynics they will know how to deploy them cunningly to 'add value' to their operations. Many of them could do a better job critiquing themselves than we are doing right now. So what could this meeting do that would really impact rather than be the radical ghetto sounding off to itself.Maybe Yes Men' style of tactics which instead of situating its language entirely on the critical outside somehow comes from inside the CI culture and mindset turning the language the (CI lexicon) in on itself. As they would say lets 'start 'singing from the same hymn sheet' (NOT) and 'thinking outside of the box'. 'Eyes down' to start compiling a lexicon for a game of CI buzword bingo.

In the mean time -to really help to turn numb our brains here is the latest call for the Creative Clusters Conference

David Garcia

Creative Clusters is the international conference, network and events programme for people working in the development of the creative economy. We are interested in development and regeneration projects that deliver outcomes in both cultural and economic terms.

Our goal is to help people engaged in the development of the creative economy to communicate and share resources with one another.

The theme for Creative Clusters Conference 2006 is MainstreamingCreativity.

After only a few short years in the policy spotlight, the creativeindustries are no longer considered a marginal or specialist sector,but are seen to impact on all areas of the economy. Around the world,from Brazil to Korea, New Zealand to Lithuania, and at the level ofnations, regions, cities, towns and neighbourhoods, creativeindustries appear as key components in both cultural and economicdevelopment plans. There are countless creative development projectsin progress, there are rich currents of academic discourse, and thereis a huge market of consultants and organisations with creativeservices and expertise on offer. Increasingly, the concept'creativity' is replacing 'knowledge' as the pundit's definingcharacteristic for the modern economy.

In short, the creative industries are here to stay, and they are amajor force in global economic and cultural development. But whatdoesthis really mean for creative industries and culture-led development?

As the creative industries collectively become major employers,exporters and sources of wealth, are they ready to take on theresponsibilities of holding up the economy? It's one thing for thecreative industries to demand serious attention as economic players,and quite another for them actually to take on the role in society ofthe manufacturing, engineering and extraction industries it is claimedthey are replacing. And is government really developing the policiesto cope with these changes?

What is more, 'creativity' is increasingly being seen as the strategythat all businesses must adopt to take on the challenges ofglobalisation. In the West this tends to mean deploying IP-relatedskills to take on low-cost competition from China and India. In China,India and other developing countries, entrepreneurs see no reason whythey should not use their creativity too, alongside lower costs and awealth of cultural assets, to redress historic imbalances of powerwith the West. Disempowered minorities in the West see similaropportunities within their local cultures. But are globalisation andthe opportunities of creativity really the zero-sum games that thesepositions imply?

And if creativity is a driving force in economic development, are thevalues hitherto championed by culture, or by commerce, drivingchange?

Or is there another future, a third way, in which people, places andprofit reach a new accommodation?

What does the economy really look like when creativity ismainstreamed?