Getting Started

Bingo is a fantastic way to raise funds but please make sure you visit the Gambling Commission website to see if you require a licence or not before you start booking your venue, entertainment and catering.

You may not need a licence if you are playing from home, fundraising for a charity or good cause, prize gaming bingo, licenced pubs & members clubs and entertainment centres, each one has it's limitations on stakes and prizes etc. so worth a read.

Buying Guide
 

6 or 12 to view bingo tickets?

This is the length of a strip of bingo. Bingo tickets can be supplied in either 6 tickets/books long or 12 tickets/books long, these are perforated into individuals. The most common size is 6 to view as most people play 6 tickets at a time but if you have customers that are forever asking for smaller quantities i.e. 4's then 12 to view maybe better for you as it can be split into a lot more combinations without waste.

How many tickets are in one pack?

6 to view: Each packet of 6 to view bingo has 750 individual tickets per game or 125 strips of 6 individual tickets.

12 to view: Each packet of 12 to view bingo has 1500 individual tickets per game or 125 strips of 12 tickets.

What is an individual ticket and what is a strip?

Each white box on a strip of tickets is one individual ticket, in-between each individual ticket there is a perforation to split the strip of tickets into smaller quantities/individual tickets if required.

What do you mean by game sizes?

Game(s) is simply the amount of games you want to play in a night. You can buy just a single game flyer or if you want to play several games then you could get something like a 4 game pack that has 4 different coloured tickets glued together in a book. The image below shows a strip of 4 game that has been fanned apart.

How do I draw the numbers?

There are a number of products you can used to draw the numbers for your bingo game, from a bag of 1-90 numbered counters or balls, to the classic bingo cage or for those wanting to entertain larger audiences you could look at an electronic bingo machine.

How to Play

Set up a table where your customers can buy bingo tickets, tickets sell from around 20p to £1. Your customers may just want to buy one individual ticket / book, the more experienced players may play several strips per game but most customers buy one strip of six, as this will give them the full 1-90 numbers.

It's up to you how you play, you can play for one line (one horizontal line on an individual ticket), two lines, the middle line, and/or the full house or you may just wish to play for a full house etc.

Before you start playing make sure everyone is ready, playing on the right coloured ticket and they are playing for either the line or full house. If you want to keep it traditional call "eyes down" then start drawing your numbers and call them out clearly, again you can go traditional and add rhymes like two little ducks etc. (a copy of bingo calls can be requested under the notes section when placing an order). If drawing your bingo numbers by hand it's good practice to put your drawn numbers on a control board then as winners announce themselves you can quickly double check their bingo ticket.

An average bingo game lasts 10 to 15 minutes.