Bingo Prizes and Patterns: Regular, Special and Progressive Games

A bingo pattern is the arrangement of numbers a card must cover to win, and a prize type is the rule that sets what covering it pays. The pattern decides the odds through one figure, the count of numbers it needs, and the prize type decides the return per chip. One 75-ball card averages 60.8 balls for a 4-number pattern, 67.56 for an 8-number one and 72.96 for a blackout of 24, while a pot that is a share of sales returns 0.80 chips on average per 1-chip card when the room keeps 20%. In Canada the hall versions of these terms come from the AGCO’s licence terms and progressive bingo rules, and for online rooms we found only British Columbia’s tie and minimum-player rule. All odds are our own calculations, and every prize amount in chips is an illustration.

The Shapes a Pattern Can Take

The prize goes to the first card that covers the announced pattern, and the shape on screen is the one that counts, since names may differ from room to room. Two pattern pages we read describe the common shapes in the same way.

• Straight line: any row, column or diagonal covered end to end.
• Four corners: the four squares at the corners of the card.
• Postage stamp: four squares in a 2×2 block, in one corner.
• X: both diagonals, which meet at the free centre.
• Picture frame: the 16 squares along the outer edge.
• Blackout, also called coverall: every number on the card.

One of the two pages also describes a T, made of the top row and the middle column, and an L, made of the left column and the bottom row. The free centre counts as covered from the start, so a shape through it needs one number fewer: a line through the centre needs 4 numbers and any other line needs 5.

The Odds for Each Pattern

For one card, the table gives how many numbers each pattern needs, the average ball at which it completes and the chance that it is complete by balls 30, 50, 60 and 70. Code computed every cell from the 5×5 grid with the free centre counted as covered. A cell that reads less than 0.001% is possible in principle, but its chance is below that figure.

Shapes with the same count of numbers have the same odds. Four corners, the postage stamp and a line through the centre need 4 numbers each and average 60.8 balls, while the X and the T need 8 each and average 67.56. Any 4 chosen numbers are as likely to come out as any other 4, wherever they sit, so a new shape in a lobby can be priced by counting its numbers and leaving out the free centre.

Any line is the exception because it is 12 shapes at once. It averages 41.37 balls, far sooner than a single line, since 12 lines race to finish and the first one counts.

You can check three values by hand. For s numbers the average ball is s times 76 divided by (s + 1), so 4 times 76 divided by 5 gives 60.8 and 24 times 76 divided by 25 gives 72.96. The chance of four corners by ball 50 is 50 over 75 times 49 over 74 times 48 over 73 times 47 over 72, which is 18.95%.

How 90-Ball Lines Differ

A 90-ball line is one of the three rows of the 3×9 ticket, with 5 numbers in it, so a ticket has 3 lines against 12 on a 75-ball card. The prizes come in stages on one ticket: a line, then two lines, then the full house of all 15 numbers.

The 75-ball card reaches a line sooner because it has four times as many lines, some needing only 4 numbers, and fewer balls to draw from. A 90-ball ticket averages 64.63 balls for one line, 77.56 for two lines and 85.31 for the full house, and the 90-ball guide has the strip of six and the odds by ball.

Prize Types and What They Do to the Return

A pattern says what to cover, and the prize type says what covering it pays. The table sets out six types and what each does to the expected return in our illustrative setup, with 1-chip cards and a room that keeps 20% of sales, the share we call retention.

Proportional pot is our own label. The glossaries we read describe a progressive jackpot as one that grows with every game until someone completes the required pattern, a jackpot as an extra prize for completing a set pattern within a fixed number of calls, and a split pot as a prize pool divided evenly between players who win at the same time.

Pots, Progressives and Ties in Chips

The steps use a room of 200 cards, 1-chip cards and the illustrative 20% retention, and each one builds on the one before. Every figure comes from the code behind this series.

1. A proportional pot starts from sales. The room sells 200 chips and keeps 20%, so the pot is 160 chips. Split 15%, 25% and 60% among a line, two lines and a full house, as in our 90-ball example, it pays 24, 40 and 96 chips.
2. The expected return per card is 1 minus the retention, times the price. That is 0.80 chips at 20%, whether you hold 1 card or 30, and the reference session of 60 chips returns 48 on average.
3. A progressive jackpot takes a slice of every game. If 10% of sales feed it, on top of the 20% the room keeps, it gains 20 chips a game and holds 200 after 10 games without a winner, while regular games return 0.70 chips per card.
4. A tie divides the prize. Two cards that complete the full house on the same ball take 48 chips each of the 96, and three cards take 32 each.
5. A tight call limit makes a jackpot rare. In this room the model ends a 90-ball round by ball 55 in 5.06% of rounds, about 1 in 19.7, and by ball 65 in 59.66%.

A consolation has no formula here because the room sets its size. The retention is an illustration and not a measurement of any room, and at 10% and 30% the reference session returns 54 and 42 chips on average.

Regular, Special and Progressive Games in Canada

Ontario’s licence terms separate a regular event, with total prizes of no more than $5,500, from a special event, called Monster, with more, and the how-it-works guide puts that line in context. The licensing policy adds that a licensee may run a variable bingo game up to the maximum licensed prize board, that all the prizes in a game together cannot exceed the regular event’s prize board and that every payout must be announced, as approved on the game schedule, before the game begins.

Ontario’s progressive bingo rules of play cover the consolation prize. If nobody wins the jackpot within the designated calls, the first person or persons to complete the combination take a consolation of either 50% of the gross revenues, up to a maximum of $400, or a fixed prize of no more than $400. The jackpot and consolation amounts are announced before the game, and the consolation game is still played if the progressive prize is won. The 75-ball guide has the designated calls and the odds behind them.

For online rooms, the one Canadian prize rule we found is on British Columbia’s provincial bingo page. When several players win at once the prize is shared equally, and a draw needs at least two players or it is cancelled and the card purchases are refunded. The page does not say whether prizes are fixed or tied to sales, and we found no official Canadian page that sets how an online room fixes its prizes or its retention.

What Guaranteed Means and How to Read a Room

None of the glossaries we read defines the word guaranteed, so it calls for a question and not an assumption: what happens when too few cards are sold. A guaranteed amount that the room pays whatever the sales behaves like the fixed prize above, with the room carrying the shortfall, while a share of sales can shrink with the sales unless the rules say otherwise. A rule such as the two-player minimum above shows what a shortfall rule looks like.

Five questions cover most room descriptions, and the answers tell you which row of the prize table applies.

1. Is the prize an amount or a share of sales?
2. Is there a call limit, such as a full house within a set number of calls?
3. Does the jackpot grow, and what does it reset to?
4. Is there a consolation prize, and how large is it?
5. What happens on a tie, and what happens if too few players join?

A description that answers all five lets you price the game with the tables above. If one is left open, ask the room’s support before you buy.

Other Guides in the Series

This guide is one of nine. The Canadian bingo hub sets the four variants in one table, and the seven guides below each take one topic.

• How online bingo works: the round from cut-off to payout, Ontario’s testing rule and the cost of a bonus requirement.
• 90-ball bingo: the 3×9 ticket, the strip of six and the odds ball by ball.
• 75-ball bingo: the 5×5 face from Alberta’s hall terms, the claim rules and Ontario’s designated calls.
• 80-ball bingo: red, yellow, blue and white columns and the odds of a line with and without diagonals.
• 30-ball bingo: the 3×3 card, ties in 25.57% of model rounds and a budget in chips.
• Odds and cost: the overlay table, the cards-over-room rule and the myths checked with the math.
• Legality and safety: ages by province, the AGCO complaint route, tax on prizes and the help-line table.

Prize Types and Your Limit

The prize type changes what a chip buys and not whether a chip is spent. With a proportional pot at 20% retention the reference session costs 12 chips on average, and a fixed prize can cost more or less depending on sales. Set the limit in chips before you read the prize description, and stop when you reach it. The responsible gambling page for Canada lists limit and break tools.

Author:

Lucas Portela

Owner, BoldGambler • Avanhandava/SP

Oddsmaker, affiliate and content creator in the iGaming industry.

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