How to play
Pattern Bingo is a 75-ball game where straight lines don’t pay at all. The money goes to four shapes instead: the four corners, a big X, the outer frame and finally the whole card.
Buying in. Choose how many cards you want, from one to four, at 10 credits each, then press the Play button (it shows the cost, for example “Play 3 cards (30)”). Your cards are ordinary 75-ball cards: five columns headed B, I, N, G, O holding 1–15, 16–30, 31–45, 46–60 and 61–75, with a free space in the middle that starts out marked.
The hall. You are not alone. Thirty-six computer-owned cards are bought into the same game, and every prize goes to whichever card in the hall gets there first, yours or theirs.
The draw. Balls come out one by one and every card is daubed automatically, so there is nothing to tap during play. The counter shows “Ball n of 75” and the last number called. Three controls let you set the pace: Pause (and Resume), Faster, and Draw all, which runs straight to the end. Each pattern is outlined on your cards in its own colour (red corners, gold X, blue frame) so you can see how close you are.
When a prize goes, the board tells you whether you took it, shared it, or lost it to “other cards”, along with the ball number. The game ends once someone fills a card.
The four shapes
| Prize | Numbers needed | Share of the pot |
|---|---|---|
| Four corners | 4 (the corner squares) | 10% |
| X | 8 (both diagonals; the free centre is already marked) | 20% |
| Frame | 16 (every square on the outer edge) | 25% |
| Full house | 24 (every number on the card) | 45% |
The shapes overlap in a way that fixes part of the order. The four corner squares sit on both diagonals and on the edge, so any card that completes the X or the frame has already completed the corners. The corners prize is therefore always awarded first, or on the same ball as the X or frame. The X and the frame can fall either way round. The full house always closes the game.
The pot, in numbers
Ninety percent of the money for every card in the hall goes into the pot, and the pot is split by the shares above, rounded down to whole credits. With one card of your own the hall holds 37 cards, so the pot is 333: 33 for the corners, 66 for the X, 83 for the frame and 149 for the full house. Play four cards and the hall holds 40, the pot grows to 360, and the prizes become 36, 72, 90 and 162.
If several cards finish a shape on the same ball, they split that prize evenly. If two of the winners are yours, you get two shares.
Because your cards and the house cards are dealt by exactly the same process, every card in the hall has the same chance at each prize. Over many games each card gets back 90% of its price on average, a hair less after the rounding. That figure holds no matter how many cards you hold.
Strategy
There is no daubing to get right and no way to pick numbers, so strategy is limited to how many cards you buy.
- More cards raise the chance of a win, not the return. Four cards out of 40 in the hall give you a one-in-ten share of every prize on average; one card out of 37 gives roughly one in 37. You are paying four times as much for that, and the 90% return per card doesn’t move.
- Four corners is the one to watch early. It needs only four numbers, so it usually goes well before the others. With 36 rival cards also chasing it, it often lands on a computer card.
- The frame is the big middle prize. Sixteen numbers is a long wait, but it pays a quarter of the pot, more than the X.
- Use Draw all when you just want the result. The outcome is the same whatever speed you watch it at.
Prefer the classic one-line-then-full-house format on the same card? 75-Ball Bingo pays the first line and the full house. For a ticket with three rows and a two-lines prize, try 90-Ball Bingo.
If you enjoy Pattern Bingo, try Peg Drop or Penalty Shot next.
