90 Ball Bingo

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90 Ball Bingo is considered the British version of the game, most common in the United Kingdom, other parts of Europe and Australia. However, these days the game’s popularity is rapidly spreading to North America and other regions. This bingo variant is played on a special card designed with 27 squares, which are arranged in 3 horizontal rows of 9 vertical columns each. Because there are only 5 numbers marked in every row, the card contains a total of 15 numbered squares and 12 empty spaces. The caller calls out only the number that comes up, without any of the letters B-I-N-G-O.

90 Ball Bingo is a 3 stage game, with a prize winner at each stage. The objective of stage 1 is to cover any 5 numbers in a row horizontally, while in stage 2 the objective is to cover 2 complete horizontal rows of 5 numbers each, and in stage 3 the point is to get a “full house” by covering 3 rows of 5 numbers – in other words, all the numbers on the 90 Ball Bingo card.

The game tends to start out slowly, but in terms of total playing time is actually much quicker than 75 Ball Bingo. This fast pace, together with the fact that generally each stage produces a different winner, adds to the excitement of a 90 Ball Bingo game. In the unusual event that one fortunate player ends up winning all 3 levels of any given game, it is said that he has “scored a hat trick.”