In the United Kingdom, bingo is huge. Men and women of all ages play bingo, whether online and offline. They even have an extremely popular bingo cable show where people can play the game by watching the show where the numbers are announced. In any case, it may surprise a lot of people that the bingo played in America is very different from the bingo played in the United Kingdom. In the United States, bingo has 75 balls. In United Kingdom, it involves 90 balls, and the game is called Housie. This version of bingo is also played in European countries, as well as in New Zealand and in Australia.
So how is Housie different from the American bingo?
As mentioned earlier, Housie has 90 balls/numbers, as supposed to the American bingo that only has 75 balls. But beyond the number of balls involved there are even more differences between the UK and the American bingo. First difference: the card used. Housie has 27 boxes or tiles in a 9 x 3 card. This means that it is longer than the American card. However, the Housie card actually has far fewer numbers in the cards, since not call cards actually have numbers inside them. Each row has five numbers each, leaving four tiles blank. Each column has a set of numbers specifically set for them. The first column is for one to nine, the second for 10 to 18, so forth. However, the last row is set for the last 18 numbers. Usually, a row has one number, usually two numbers, but rarely three. But in the end, the number positions do not really matter. What matters in Housie are the numbers in your card, not where they are located (which is often the case with American bingo).
This is because the game of Housie is like a variant of the black out game in American bingo. However, there are very slight variations in the game—because the game does not require the player to have a full black out immediately. Often times, the one who marks the first two rows in their card wins a prize, but a bigger prize is actually reserved for the player who marks every row in his or her card (this is the full house). Although some play the full house immediately, most game providers (online and offline) play the two lines game (as mentioned above). The advantage of this over American bingo? House allows multiply players. Since two patterns are usually asked per game, those who did not get the first formation are given the chance to complete the rest of the card. And since there are more numbers being called in a Housie game, the chance that the first winner can win the succeeding game is not at all bigger, giving everyone a fighting chance until the end.
Housie does not offer the same variety as the 75 ball bingo, but the chance for multiple players and the fact that Housie games are generally longer make up for that fact.
