ADMISSION
Most land based bingo halls or parlors have a minimum number of cards that you must purchase as the price of "admission." Typically you must purchase an "admission packet."
AFTER GAME(S).
The game(s) played after the end of a regular "session" of play.
BINGO!
When a player has all the numbers required for the game or "pattern" being played.
This is when you may yell "BINGO!" or when playing online the game will stop.
BLACKOUT
A variation of the game of bingo in which the object is to cover all the 25 spaces on your card.
Usually 50 to 60 of the 75 bingo numbers have to be called to cover all the numbers on a card.
Blackouts in 48 or 49 numbers, while not frequent, are not uncommon.
BINGO BOARD
A display board, usually electronic that "lights up" showing each number as it is called.
BLOWER
. A forced-air device that mixes the bingo balls and dispenses them to the "caller" who announces the number and displays it on a "bingo board." This is only found in land based halls. A simulated blower is often found at online bingo sites.
BONANZA BINGO
A special version of bingo played on small paper cards. The sealed sheets are sold prior to each session but additional sheets can be purchased during each session. Rules for "Bonanza Bingo" vary from parlor to parlor but typically the caller draws 50 numbers before the start of the session.
CALLER
The person who draws and announces the bingo numbers. This is also the person to blame if your number
does not come up before somebody else bingos.
CONSOLATION(S)
The prize or prizes offered on some "special" or "flimsy" games if there is no winner in a predetermined number of calls.
COVERALL ... see "blackout."
DAUBER
An ink marker sold in a small plastic bottle for the purpose of marking off numbers on "flimsy" sheets.
An auto dabber can be found at almost all online bingo sites - you can usually pick the shape and color.
EARLY BIRD
A bingo game played before the start of a "session." But sometimes the Early Bird game is merely the first game of the session. The first game of a session is more commonly known as a "Warm Up."
FREE SPACE
The space in the center of a bingo card. It does not have a number assigned to it.
It is always "wild." Cover it on all your bingo cards when you start a new game.
JACKPOT
The prize offered on a "special" game.
Sometimes the jackpot is progressive and grows every day or every week. Often the numbers needed to win are progressive, too. As numbers are added, the pot becomes easier to win..
MULTIPLE WINNERS
If two or more players bingo at the same time, the cash prize is divided among them. For example, if there are five winners on a $500 game, they each receive $100.
PAYOUT
The percentage of sales paid out by the "house." The average payout playing online bingo is usually over 90%
PROGRESSIVE
A jackpot prize that builds daily, weekly, or monthly if it is not won in a specific number of calls. If there is no winner in x number of calls, consolation prize(s) of lesser dollar amounts are paid. Different variations of progressive games add dollars or numbers, or both, to the jackpot.
PULL TAB
Tickets sell for 25 cents or 50 cents or even more and typically offer prizes ranging from free tickets to $500. Each ticket has perforated windows which open revealing symbols similar to those found on slot machines or some lottery games.
SESSION
An entire evening or daytime program of bingo consisting of "regular" games usually played on "hard cards" and special games played on "throwaways" or paper sheets.
A session usually lasts somewhere between two and a half hours and three hours and 15 minutes.
SPLIT POT
A bingo game in which the winner splits the sales of the game (the pot) with the bingo hall or "house." For example the winner might get 60 percent of the sales and the house would keep forty percent.
SPEED BINGO
A variation of regular bingo. Numbers are called very quickly and you can bingo in as few as three numbers. Usually played before or after a regular session.
