Bingo Lingo

Bingo Board - A display board, usually electronic that lights up showing each number as it is called. 

Bingo Books/Booklets - A number of different colored bingo sheets/cards bound together to form a book/booklet to be played one for each game at a bingo session. They are usually bound in the order in which they will be played.  A “3 up” book will contain 3 Bingo Cards per page, a “6 Up”, 6 cards per page and a “9 Up”, 9 cards per page.

Bingo Card - A card containing 24 numbered spaces and one free space (blank), with which you play BINGO. The numbers are assigned at random on each card and are arranged in five columns of five numbers each by five rows (5 x 5 = 25 in total including the blank square). The numbers in the B column are between 1 and 15, in the I column between 16 and 30, in the N column (containing four numbers and the free space) between 31 and 45, in the G column between 46 and 60, and in the O column between 61 and 75. Players have thousands of unique (unduplicated) cards to choose from.

Blackout - A pattern where you must cover the whole card to win. 

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.

Breakopen - A multi-ply card, with perforated breakopen tabs. The game play area of the card is covered to conceal numbers; some of which have been designated in advance as prize winners.

Caller - The person who calls out the bingo numbers as they are drawn.

Consolation Prize - The prize or prizes offered on some special games if there is no winner in a predetermined number of calls on a progressive game.

Dauber - Bingo dauber is ink-filled bottle/pen with a foam tip on it used to mark called numbers. When you touch the bingo card with the foam tip it marks the square.

Free Space - The center square of the card, which does not have a number assigned to it. It's like a Joker or a Wild square. You get it free every game and it can count towards your winning pattern.

Jackpot - A big prize usually awarded for achieving a difficult pattern, such as a blackout, within a specified number of balls.

Pattern - The shape you need to cover on your card with called out numbers, usually it is in a straight line; horizontal, vertical and diagonal.

Payout - The percentage of sales paid out by the House.

Postage Stamp Pattern - Matching four numbers to form a postage stamp (a 2 x 2 grid)

Progressive Jackpot - A Jackpot that gets bigger until it is won. It builds daily, or weekly, 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. There is a separate buy-in for Progressive Jackpot games.

Runner - The person that sells cards (specials) on the floor to the players, as well as calls in Bingos when a paper Bingo is called.  This person is the main representative of Jackpot City Gaming Entertainment, and should provide players the utmost of Customer Service.

Serial Number - The minimum five-character number printed by a manufacturer on each set of cards. Each card in a set contains the same serial number.

Series - Indicates the number of unique faces that a single set will contain. For example: a 9000 Series has 9000 unique faces.

Session - An entire program of bingo consisting of regular and special games. A session usually lasts somewhere between two and a half hours and three hours.

Special - Games that are played with a different set of cards than the books purchased for regular games.