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You found our list of the best online team building games for remote teams.
Online team building is the intentional creation of relationships via online platforms. Online team building games are any games that you play online to help foster collaboration and team spirit with employees. Examples of these online games include Spreadsheet Wars, Online Office Games and Virtual Charades.
These games are similar to virtual team building activities and are effective for remote team engagement.
This list includes:
- online games for remote teams
- fun online team building games
- free online team building activities
- online group games
- virtual games to play with coworkers
And other games to play virtually 🙂
So, check out the list!
List of Online Team Building Games
Below is a list of online team building games. From Bingo to Lightning Scavenger Hunts to The Ground is Lava, you will find games that are fun, free and easy to play with remote teams.
1. Online Team Building Bingo (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)
One of the best starter online games for teams is Online Team Building Bingo. Bingo, a game played across retirement homes and summer camps everywhere, is familiar, fun, and works extremely well in the online format.
Here is an Online Team Building Bingo board you can start with:
You can “Right Click + Save As” to download the Bingo board.
You can freely distribute and use this virtual bingo board for internal use 🙂
To play Online Team Building Bingo:
- Distribute the board to your team
- Establish rules and a timeline to play
- Track the results and award prizes
Pro tip: Amazon gift cards and bragging rights are usually sufficient prizes for successful online team building games.
Learn more about Online Team Building Bingo.
2. Online Office Games (Most Popular)
Online Offices Games is a facilitated series of online games and challenges for remote teams. You can learn more about the various games included on our page for Online Office Games.
The challenges are specifically designed for remote teams and to help develop the essential skills for working from home. For example, each event starts with virtual icebreaker questions, then pub-style trivia and games like “Can Your Hear Me Now”, which is a game that emphasizes the precision of communication you need for working remotely.
It’s fun 🙂
Learn more about Online Office Games.
3. Murder in Ancient Egypt (Collaborative)
One of our most popular online team building games is Murder in Ancient Egypt. This game uses mechanics of escape rooms, puzzles and problem solving and so encourages your team to work together. This murder mystery also has an interesting twist; the murder is actually a real mystery from ancient Egypt, and after your teams make their guess, our master storytelling will share the big reveal.
Murder in Ancient Egypt is a 90 minute, fully-facilitated event. We provide an energetic host to keep your team engaged, and a co-host that manages the technical aspects. The event is fun, challenging and perfect for groups that want to work both collaboratively and competitively.
Learn more about Murder in Ancient Egypt.
4. War of the Wizards (RPG Game)
War of the Wizards is a collaborative storytelling game of wisdom and magic. The story start that a group of wizards have been at war since ages past, and no-one even quite remembers why. Your people become the wizards’ minions, working together to collect magic items, cast spells and overcome obstacles. For example, you may develop a strategy to leap over a wide chasm, or challenge an ogre to a battle of wits.
War of the Wizards is a little nerdy, and a whole lot of fun. You don’t have to be a Dungeons & Dragons master either; the game is simple to follow and fun to participate for all skill levels. The game lasts for 90 minutes, and is facilitated over video conference by our talented host.
Learn more about War of the Wizards.
5. Spreadsheet Battleship (Nostalgic)
If you grew up in the late eighties and early nineties then you will likely remember the energetic proclamation “you sunk my battleship!”
Over 20+ years later, it turns out that Battleship has a perfect format for online games. You can also play the game multiplayer, with three to 10 players or more if you are feeling audacious.
To play Spreadsheet Battleship, each player needs two things: a game board and the placement of ships. You can use graph paper labelled with letters and numbers for the game board, and either randomly assign battleship placement or let each player choose where to place the ships.
Here is a Google Sheets game board you can use.
Spreadsheet Battleship game mechanics are a little like Go Fish. On each player’s turn, that player chooses another player and names a square on the grid like A-5 or C-10. The receiving player says, “you missed”, “you hit” or “you sunk my battleship!” depending on what happened. The next player then goes in sequence, which could be in order of age or geographic location.
Continue playing until only one player has ships remaining.
6. Lightning Scavenger Hunts ⚡ (Fast)
In the real world, we run scavenger hunts at some of the coolest locations in the world: like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and Grand Central Terminal. Scavenger Hunts can be a fun way for your people to work together.
Virtual scavenger hunts are more difficult to find that team spirit with. You might have game mechanics that have your team searching Google, Wikipedia, YouTube and other sites, without really working together.
The solution for successful online scavenger hunts is to throw away the normal and adopt a lightning version instead. For Lightning Scavenger Hunts, fire off a rapid series of clues that have your team members dashing to find objects, solve clues and win points. For example, you could have everyone grab their favorite mug and award points to the best mug story.
The fast paced nature of Lightning Scavenger Hunts is what makes it work for online team building games.
Here are more virtual scavenger hunt templates.
7. Lexulous “Scrabble” Style Game (Free)
Lexulous is a free online game that is mode led after Scrabble. The main difference is that Lexulous has eight tiles in play at a time, and the value assigned to each letter is a little different.
The main similarities are that Lexulous looks pretty darn like Scrabble, and like me and my brothers: my mom loves them all equally.
You can easily include Lexulous in your options for online games to play with coworkers. You can keep track of points and total scores over a month, and award a Lexulous champion at the end.
8. Guess the Refrigerator (Quirky)
My refrigerator mostly contains fatty pork, 100% dark chocolate and pears. Your refrigerator may be different. A fun game we could play together is Guess the Refrigerator.
Guess the Refrigerator is similar to “Who Da Baby?” and other guessing games. To play, everyone submits a photo of the inside of their refrigerator to one point of contact. That organizer then posts the photos to a channel where all participants can study the contents and make best guesses at which refrigerator belongs to who. The players submit answers to the organizer, who then tallies up the scores and announces a winner.
Sharing an inside view of your refrigerator takes a degree of vulnerability, which is a factor that contributes to the success of great online team building games.
9. “Can Your Hear Me Now?”
“Can You Hear Me Now” is one of the most popular games we play as part of Online Office Games. You can play this game 100% online, and as part of a virtual conference call.
To play, name one person as the Describer and the other players as Artists. The Describer must explain to the Artists how to draw an item like a sunflower, kite or calculator using only geometric terms.
For example, you could say “draw a large square” and then “add a line at a 45 degree angle from the top”, but not “draw the letter E.”
You can play each round for as long as you like, and three minutes is usually sufficient. At the end of each round, the Describer gets one point for each Artist that guesses the object correctly, and each Artist that guesses correctly also gets one point. Tally up points and award cool prizes to the winner.
10. Five Clicks Away
Five Clicks Away is a logic game for online team building. To play, you select a starting topic and an ending topic, which you can decide on your own or randomly generate. For example, the starting point could be Blackbeard the Pirate and the endpoint could be grilled cheese sandwiches.
Each player must start on the Wikipedia page for the starting point, and in no-more than five clicks reach the end point. The idea is that Wikipedia has so many internal links that you should be able to follow a chain to reach the end point in less than five clicks.
Five Clicks Away is difficult to get started with, but as you start to understand Wikipedia’s structure the game becomes easier. Like “Can You Hear Me Now?”, the game is also a proxy for learning a useful remote work skill, which in this case is obscure research.
11. Typing Speed Race (Competitive)
One of my favorite online team building games is a Typing Speed Race with friendly competition. For the Typing Speed Race, you can use a free tool like typingtest.com and have each of your team members do a one minute challenge. Then, each person posts their test results to Slack, email or another platform.
The Typing Speed Race is a great way to encourage friendly competition with remote teams. You can make the experience more collaborative by doing a Typing Speed Relay, which requires forming your people into teams and then adding the cumulative score from each person to create a team total.
With the Typing Speed Race, everyone wins because typing quickly is an important skill for remote work.
12. Chair Up! (Positive Powerup 🙂)
Chair Up! is both my favorite pun-inspired name for a chair store, and also a fun and easy game for video conference calls.
The game is played over email, messenger or conference call, and is specifically meant to counter the doom and gloom that sometimes guides conversations. Whenever someone calls out “chair up!”, everyone must stand up and do something cheerful. For example, you could do yoga sun-salutations, clap your hands, laugh or have a small dance party.
Chair Up! is silly, fun, and an easy way to get started with online team building.
13. Water Shots 💦
When you work from home, taking care of your health and fitness is especially important. You can do squats and eat well, and also make sure you drink enough water.
Water Shots is a game meant to fortify your team around healthy hydration. To play, you first choose a trigger, which could be “every time a pet comes on screen in a video call” or “any time someone says mute.” When the trigger happens, all participants must drink a shot of water, which could be a literal shot or a sip.
Team building games that focus on building healthy habits are a great way to support company culture and development with remote teams.
14. Virtual Charades
Charades is one of those games that nearly everyone plays at school or home while growing up. With this proliferation of Charades, Virtual Charades has the advantages of being fairly familiar while also being moderately fun.
To play Virtual Charades, prepare a set of links that go to Google Image pages or use a random image generator. On each player’s turn, that player must act out what they see in the image and the player’s teammates can guess each one to earn points. Rinse and repeat until you are all out of fun.
Here are some frustrating office words you can use as prompts for your game:
- jammed printer
- dry pen
- empty stapler
- squeaky door
- full refrigerator
- broken heater
- company firewall
You can use other words too, but frustrating office words are a good reminder of why working from home is fun.
15. Pub-style Trivia
You don’t need a pub to play pub-style trivia, and beer and peanuts are also optional. Instead, you can play with at least two teams, a series of trivia questions, and positive attitudes.
Playing pub-style trivia online is similar to the in-the-pub version, with one crucial difference: you need an easy way for people to communicate. Instead of mumbling across a table, we recommend using vivirtual breakout rooms so that each team can discuss the answers openly. Each team can then submit the answers via a web-form and the host can award points as needed.
Here are more instructions on how to play virtual happy hour trivia.
Pro tip: Playing virtual happy hour games like pub-style trivia give you a unique opportunity to include wildly different clues in the game. For example, instead of “guess that tune”, you could have players guess the tune, find it on YouTube and identify a clue at a specific time stamp. The internet is your virtual game oyster.
16. Virtual Werewolf (Team Favorite 🏆)
Werewolf is a game of cunning deceit and tactful manipulation, and the online version is much of the same. The game relies primarily on the spoken word, which makes it perfect for remote teams.
To play, nominate one person as the narrator and then randomly distribute the following roles to players:
- Werewolf: a werewolf has two jobs: eat villagers, and survive to eat more villagers.
- Villagers: these are the common folks in the game who have no special powers, but desperately hope to survive the night.
- Medic: the medic can save up to one villager each round.
- Seer: a seer can peer into the depths of another players soul to reveal whether that player is a werewolf or not.
- Hunter: when the hunter dies, the hunter can point a finger at any other player and take that person down with them.
To play, first distribute the roles via private message or email the players in advance. For a game with five people, you should have 1 werewolf, 1 medic and 3 villagers. For each additional five people add 1 werewolf, 1 special role, and 3 villagers. The ratios are flexible, so can modify them to suit your needs.
To start the game, the narrator declares that “night has fallen” and all players must close their eyes and tap their knees or keyboards to create a pitter-patter sound. After a few seconds the narrator says “werewolves wake up”, and any players with the werewolf role must awake and choose a single victim via private message.
The narrator then puts the werewolves back to sleep and has the medic and seer wake up in sequence. During the medic’s turn to be awake, the medic can point to one player to save that player from the jaws of the werewolf. If the medic selects the same player as the werewolf, then nobody dies during the night. When the seer points to a player, the narrator can answer yes or no to whether that player is a werewolf.
After all special roles act, the narrator declares “the sun is coming up” and either the name of the player that the werewolves ate or that no-one was eaten if the medic chose correctly. All players can open their eyes, and then debate on who the werewolf might be. To end the round, all players vote on one player to eliminate from the game or can pass and wait until the next round. Any player that is eliminated either by the werewolves or by vote becomes a friendly ghost that is not allowed to speak for the rest of the game but may observe it in quiet frustration.
Repeat until the only remaining players are werewolves or villagers.
17. We Didn’t Start the Fire 🔥
We Didn’t Start the Fire is an online team building game inspired by Billy Joel’s song of the same name. To play, divide the attendees of your virtual conference call into groups of four or five people and then give the groups 15 minutes of prep time. During those 15 minutes, each team writes a verse of lyrics that follow the general melody of We Didn’t Start the Fire.
After the 15 minute breakout session, bring everyone back to the main virtual meeting and have the teams present their creation. Vote on the best one with thumbs up and cheers.
18. Spreadsheet Wars (Challenging)
Spreadsheet Wars may be my favorite game to play with coworkers. Like other games on this list, Spreadsheet Wars is a combination of fun and skill-building, which makes it perfect for remote teams and offices.
To play, use a collaborative spreadsheet program like Google Sheets and select a theme like “choose your own adventure” or “scrappy recipe generator.” Each team then has up to 30 minutes to build a tool that matches the theme. The best tool wins, and really everyone wins because you are getting better at using one of the most powerful free tools on the internet.
Because Spreadsheet Wars doesn’t rely on any specific video conferencing platform, you can use it for games on Webex, Slack games, Hangouts and other platforms.
19. A World of Risk
Growing up, one of my favorite games to play was Risk, the game of global domination that meshes perfectly with my own aspirations. Risk is a game of cutthroat collaboration, friendly competition, resource management and other strategic dynamics that make it perfect for online team building.
The most flexible way to play a Risk-like game online is to use one of the many clones, for example Conquer Club, which provides a free browser based game.
20. Sudoku Throw-down
In the early 2000s, Sudoku took the world by storm; inspiring nerds everywhere to complete numerical logic games instead of the daily crossword. Today, you can play a version of Sudoku for online team building called Sudoku Throw-down.
Here is how it works:
- Send everyone on your team a free game board from a site like Web Sudoku.
- Challenge each player to complete the game board as quickly as possible.
- The first player to complete the game board with 100% accuracy is the winner.
For Sudoku Throw-down, you can easily up the competitive spirit by including prizes for the top three finishers. I recommend nerd-friendly prizes like more Sudoku puzzles, science kits and white boards.
21. Something in Common (Icebreaker)
Something in common is an icebreaker game that works on video conference calls and similar. To play, first organize your attendees into manageable sized groups of four or five people and gently push them into breakout rooms. Each group has the goal of finding three similarities they have in common with other members of that group. For example, “we all have cats, no-one was born in Chicago and we loved Hamilton.”
For the next round, keep the same teams and add a restriction that you can’t mention locations or physical similarities. For the round after that, remove pets and preferences. The goal is to make the game increasingly difficult and encourage your remote team to deep dive into what they may have in common.
Check out our list of icebreaker games for large groups for more ideas.
22. Quick Draw
Pictionary is a fun game where some people draw while other people guess what the drawing could be. The game includes elements of improv, creative thinking, competition and more.
You can play an online game that is similar to Pictionary:
- Divide your people into breakout rooms.
- Have each person in each room draw three clues. You can use this random word generator do return three nouns.
- Teams accumulate 1 point for each drawing someone on the team guesses correctly. Teams get no points for any clues that players skip or do not guess correctly.
- After 15 minutes, return everyone to the main room and compare scores.
You can play Quick Draw over Zoom, Webex and other virtual conference call platforms. You can also mix up the game and rules by varying the number of clues each person draws, and drawing verbs instead of nouns.
23. Truth or Dare: Remote Work Edition
Truth or Dare is a kind of NSFW game that is a fan favorite of students across Canada, America and other parts of the world. Truth or Dare: Remote Work Edition takes those popular game mechanics and optimizes for team building online.
Instructions:
- One person starts by naming another player and saying the words, “truth or dare?”
- The receiving person chooses either truth or dare.
- The asking person then prompts the receiver with a question or action.
- The receiving person responds and then prompts another player with the words, “truth or dare?”
Here are examples of prompts you can use:
- Which website do you waste the most time on?
- How many browser tabs do you have open right now?
- How many unread emails in your inbox?
- Make the noise of a dial-up modem from the 90s.
- Show us one object within arms reach of your computer.
The major guideline for Truth or Dare is to keep the questions and prompts friendly.
Here is a list with more question games.
24. Jackbox Games
A year or two ago I played Jackbox Games with Tasia, Ethan and some other close friends. The game prompted me to lie about “how many beers did you have last night?”, and that was game over for Michael “prefers tea” Alexis.
Still, Jackbox Games provides options you can use for online team building. The game options include trivia and similar, and the games have some unexpected and creative dynamics. To play, everyone logs into a website via a special URL.
Learn more about Jackbox Games.
25. Yellow Submarine (Unique)
When I lived in NYC, two dudes at the metro station would play the same two Beatles’ songs over and over. If the train was late and people were standing on the platform longer, sometimes the two dudes would stop playing for a bit. Neither of those songs was Yellow Submarine.
Yellow Submarine is also an online team building game you can play with remote teams. Here is how:
- Each of your remote employees needs to craft a submarine. You can use paper, magazine cutouts, or nearly anything else to craft your ship.
- Players get one point every time they show the submarine on a video conference call. You can hide the submarine in the background, have it float up from the bottom of the screen, camouflage it into your outfit, or any other incognito method.
- You get one point each time you show the submarine.
- If someone spots your submarine then you are out. You still get the one point for showing your submarine that time.
- Continue playing until everyone is out, and then tally up the points and name a Yellow Submarine Captain.
The game mechanics work because the incentive is for each player to show their submarine as many times as they can. If you wait it out, then you may be one of the last players in the game but you will also need to catch-up on points.
26. Nintendo Game Night
A few years ago, video game cafes took the world by storm. The idea of going to play Mario Kart or Goldeneye 007 while someone delivers you nachos and beer was a strong pull.
You can host a Nintendo Game Night for your team by using an emulator. The emulator allows you to play team building games online via most modern web browsers. Choose a game like Excitebike, Popeye or Ice Hockey and host a tournament to see who gets the most points. You should probably make the game night “bring your own nachos.”
Learn more at Emulator.online and start planning your online team building games.
27. Ten Strikes (Quick & Easy)
Ten Strikes is a fun icebreaker game, so it’s a good way to get to know new team members, or to build deeper relationships with existing teams.
Here is how to play:
- All participants hold up 10 fingers.
- The youngest person on the call goes first, and shares one true statement about themselves. For example, “I have a pen pal.”
- Anyone that the statement is true for gets to keep their fingers up, while anyone that the statement is not true for puts one finger down.
- If all of a player’s fingers are down then they are out of the game.
- Play until only one player remains.
The strategy in Ten Strikes is to share facts about yourself that are unique enough that other players will not be able to say it is true of them and will have to put fingers down.
Pro tip: You can also play Five Strikes or Twenty Strikes. Generally the more fingers and toes you start with, the longer the game will go.
28. The Ground is Lava 🌋
Anyone who has either been a five year old or spent time with one has played The Ground is Lava. The entire point of this game is to avoid touching the ground at all costs. You can climb from a chair to the couch, to stepping on a book and similar to get to your destination.
The online team building version of The Ground is Lava for adults is exactly the same as the five year old version. Challenge your team members to hunt for specific objects around the house, like a favorite mug or photograph. Participants can scoot on chairs, beds, throw rugs and other barriers to find the objects and return to the video call. Anyone that touches the ground is disqualified from the competition, but everyone gets to share about the object they brought back.
29. The Question Game
The Question Game is a fun game that requires no prep or special equipment. To start playing, ask someone a question, and that person must respond with a question directed back at you or another participant. If you delay for five seconds then you are out. If you speak without forming a question then you are out too 🙂
Here is an example of how this game might go:
- Ally: “It’s a beautiful day, don’t you you think Jackie?”
- Jackie: “What do you think makes it beautiful, Michael?”
- Michael: “Sorry, I was writing a blog article.”
In this example, I would be 100% out of the game. A more clever Michael would have said, “Sorry, what was that, Jackie?” and kept moving the game forward.
30. The Channel Closing Game
If your team members are on Slack or another messaging platform then starting to practice channel hygiene is important. Closing channels is a good way to avoid “Slack hovering”, which will increase productivity.
Once per month, post a challenge for team members to close out channels they are no longer participating in. We automate this message using Zapier, and include a prompt that you can copy and paste “/leave” to quickly leave channels.
You could keep track of how many channels each player leaves, and award points of prizes, but The Channel Closing Game is really one where everyone that participates wins. Closing down your excess channels is like the Slack equivalent of inbox zero. It just feels good.
Warning: The Channel Closing Game is kind of a productivity hack for managing remote teams that is masquerading in a list of great online team building games. I love it, and at least one of your team members will love it, but don’t pitch it too hard on the fun factor.
31. Online Escape Games
Escape games are a popular group activity in person, and are increasingly popular for online team building too. These virtual escape games provide opportunities for teamwork, collaboration, and developing team building skills. There are dozens of options to choose from, including free or DIY escape rooms, and fully facilitated ones.
Check out this list of online escape rooms for more ideas.
32. Virtual Murder Mysteries
Virtual murder mysteries are similar to online escape rooms, but generally have more theatrical flair. Typically, you either download scripts and choose actors on your team, or hire an outside company to perform the murder mystery for you. These online murder mysteries tend to have fun themes that match holidays, entertainment and other interests.
Here is a list of virtual murder mysteries.
Conclusion
Playing fun team games online is a great way to do team building and create meaningful relationships while working from home.
You can play the online team building games on this list, create your own, or check out other resources for more ideas. Be sure to check out our lists of online games for large groups and offline team building games too.
With online team building, the most important element is that you dedicate some time to games, because all work and no play makes for a pretty dull time.
Next, check out our list of fun games to play on Zoom and this one with virtual game night activities.
FAQ: Online team building games
The following are a few common questions and answers about online team building games for remote employees.
What is online team building?
Online team building is any formation of relationships between team members that occurs via online platforms. For example, you can do icebreakers at the beginning of virtual meetings, or play online team building games.
What are online team building games?
Online team building games are any games that you play online to help foster collaboration and team spirit with employees. Virtual team building games and remote team building games are closely related.
What are the benefits of organizing online team building games?
Organizing online team building games is one way to increase morale and engagement with remote teams. At a basic level, games are a fun way for your people to spend time with each other away from work projects and the requirements of meetings.
What are some fun games to play with virtual teams?
Fun games to play with virtual teams include Virtual Werewolf, Lightning Scavenger Hunts, Water Shots and Chair Up! Of these four games, Werewolf is the best known, and Water Shots is my favorite.
How do you get started with online team building?
An easy way to get started with online team building is to allocate either an entire virtual meeting or at least a portion of one to playing online team games. You can organize some of the games on this list, or create your own to mix up the variety.
Is online team building location dependent?
No! One of the best features of online team building is that it is completely international. Generally, as long as a participant has an internet enabled device and a reliable WiFi connection they will be able to take part in the games and activities.
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So, whether your people are in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, South America or anywhere else, online team building can be a great choice for team engagement.
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Author: Michael AlexisCEO of teambuilding.com. I write about my experience working with and leading remote teams since 2010.
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| Years active | 1920s to present |
|---|---|
| Language(s) | English |
| Random chance | Extremely high |
| Age range | Varies |
In the United States, bingo is a game of chance in which each player matches numbers printed in different arrangements on cards with the numbers the game host (caller) draws at random, marking the selected numbers with tiles. When a player finds the selected numbers are arranged on their card in a row, they call out 'Bingo!' to alert all participants to a winning card, which prompts the game host (or an associate assisting the host) to examine the card for verification of the win. Players compete against one another to be the first to have a winning arrangement for the prize or jackpot. After a winner is declared, the players clear their number cards of the tiles and the game host begins a new round of play.
Alternative methods of play try to increase participation by creating excitement. Since its invention in 1929, modern bingo has evolved into multiple variations, with each jurisdiction's gambling laws regulating how the game is played. There are also nearly unlimited patterns that may be specified for play. Some games require only one number to be matched, while cover-all games award the jackpot for covering an entire card. There are even games that award prizes to players for matching no numbers or achieving no pattern.
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Bingo cards[edit]
The most common Bingo cards are flat pieces of cardboard or disposable paper which contain 25 squares arranged in five vertical columns and five side to side rows. Each space in the grid contains a number, except the middle square, which is designated a 'Free' space.
A typical Bingo game utilizes the numbers 1 through 75. The five columns of the card are labeled 'B', 'I', 'N', 'G', and 'O' from left to right. The center space is usually marked 'Free' or 'Free Space', and is considered automatically filled. The range of printed numbers that can appear on the card is normally restricted by column, with the 'B' column only containing numbers between 1 and 15 inclusive, the 'I' column containing only 16 through 30, 'N' containing 31 through 45, 'G' containing 46 through 60, and 'O' containing 61 through 75.
The number of all possible Bingo cards with these standard features is P(15,5) × P(15,5) × P(15,5) × P(15,5) × P(15,4) = 552,446,474,061,128,648,601,600,000 or approximately 5.52×1026.
In U-Pick 'Em bingo and other variants of bingo, players are issued three 25 number cards which contain all 75 numbers that may be drawn. Players then mark which numbers they wish to play and then daub those numbers according to the numbers drawn. In addition, double-action cards have two numbers in each square.
A player wins by completing a row, column, or diagonal. The most chips one can place on a Bingo board without having a Bingo is 19, not counting the free space. In order for this to happen, only one empty cell can reside in each row and each column, and at least one empty cell must be in each diagonal, for instance:
| B | I | N | G | O |
| ● | ● | ● | ● | |
| ● | ● | ● | ● | |
| ● | ● | ● | ||
| ● | ● | ● | ● | |
| ● | ● | ● | ● |
In addition to a straight line, other patterns may be considered a valid bingo in special games. For example, in the illustration above, the 2×2 square of marked squares in the upper-right-hand corner would be considered a 'postage stamp'. Another common special game requires players to cover the four corners. There are several other patterns, such as a Roving 'L', which requires players to cover all B's and top or bottom row or all O's and top or bottom row. Another common pattern is a blackout, covering all 24 numbers and the free space.
Equipment[edit]
The numbers that are called in a game of bingo may be drawn utilizing a variety of methods to randomly generate the ball call. With the expansion of computer technology in bingo, electronic random number generators (RNG) are now commonplace in most jurisdictions. However, some jurisdictions require mechanical ball draws which may utilize a randomly shuffled deck of bingo calling cards, a mechanical ball blower that mixes ping pong balls with blown air or a cage which is turned to mix small wooden balls. All methods essentially generate a random string of numbers which players match to their bingo cards that have numbers on them.
Culture[edit]
Single games often have multiple bingos; for example, the players first play for a single line; after that, play goes on until a full card is called; then, play continues for a consolation full card.
Players often play multiple cards for each game; 30 is not an unusual number. Because of the large numbers of cards played by each player, most halls have the players sit at tables to which they often fasten their cards with adhesive tape. To mark cards faster the players usually use special markers called daubers. At commercial halls, after calling the number the caller then displays the next number on a television monitor; bingo cannot be called until that number is called aloud, however.
Bingo is often used as an instructional tool in American schools and in teaching English as a foreign language in many countries. Typically, the numbers are replaced with beginning reader words, pictures, or unsolved math problems. Custom bingo creation programs now allow teachers and parents to create bingo cards using their own content.
Terminology[edit]
Ready/Waiting/Cased/Set/Down/Chance/Shot/Pat – A player who only needs one number in order to complete the Bingo pattern is considered to have a Shot or be Ready, Waiting, Cased, Set, or Down, or to 'have a chance'.
Breaking the Bubble or 'Possible' – The bubble is the minimum number of balls required to complete the Bingo pattern. This is the earliest point any player could have a valid bingo. Example: Winning pattern is 1 hard way bingo, a straight line without the free space. The minimum number of called numbers is five (four if each number is under 'N') although it is not considered Breaking the Bubble or possible until one number in each column or four/five numbers in a single column have been called.
Jumping the Gun/Premature Bingo – One who calls bingo before having a valid bingo. The most common situation is someone calling bingo using the next number in the screen before it has been called.
Wild numbers – Many bingo halls will have certain games with a wild number. Wild numbers allow bingo players to start with multiple called numbers. Typically the first ball drawn is the determining factor.
Table Top Bingo Blower Machine
Standard – All numbers ending with the second digit of the first number. Example: First ball is 22. All numbers ending in a 2 including B2 is considered a called number.
Forwards/backwards – All numbers beginning or ending with the wild number. Example: First ball is 22. All numbers beginning or ending with a 2 is considered a called number. If the first number ends with an 8, 9, or 0, another number may be drawn as there are no numbers starting with an 8 or 9 and only 9 numbers starting with a 0. Some halls will also redraw a number ending with a 7 as there are only six numbers beginning with a 7.
False Alarm or Just Practicing – Tongue-in-cheek term used when one calls bingo but is mistaken. This could be because of mishearing the caller or stamping the wrong number by mistake. One who calls a 'falsie' genuinely believes he/she has a bingo.This is also known as a 'social error.' Another term used for this is a 'bongo.'
Hard Way Bingo – A hard-way bingo is a bingo pattern in a straight line without the use of the free space.
Reach - In Japan, a player will yell 'Reach' when he/she is one space away from a bingo.[1]
History[edit]
A lottery game called 'Il Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia' was being played in Italy by about 1530. In eighteenth-century France playing cards, tokens and the calling out of numbers were added. In the nineteenth century a game like this was widely played in Germany to teach children spelling, animal names and multiplication tables.
The French game Le Lotto appeared in 1778, featuring 27 squares in a layout of three rows and nine columns. Five squares in each row had numbers ranging from 1 through 90, which led to the modern design.[2]
In the early 1920s, Hugh J. Ward created and standardized the game at carnivals in and around Pittsburgh and the Western Pennsylvania area. He copyrighted it and published a rule book in 1933.[3][4][better source needed]
The game was further popularized by Edwin Lowe. While at a traveling carnival near Atlanta in December 1929 the toy merchandiser saw people eagerly playing a game called 'Beano' following Ward's rules, with dried beans, a rubber stamp, and cardboard sheets. Lowe took the game to New York where friends liked playing it. The Lowe-produced Bingo game had two versions, a 12-card set for $1.00 and a $2.00 set with 24 cards. By the 1940s there were Bingo games throughout the US.
The origin of the name Bingo is unknown but may date to the middle 1920s. There are claims that one of Lowe's friends[5] was so excited to have won that she yelled out 'Bingo' instead of 'Beano,' or that the word echoes the sound of a bell.
The business of bingo[edit]
In the US, the game is primarily staged by churches or charity organizations. Their legality and stakes vary by state regulation. In some states, bingo halls are rented out to sponsoring organizations, and such halls often run games almost every day. Church-run games, however, are normally weekly affairs held on the church premises. These games are usually played for modest stakes, although the final game of a session is frequently a coverall game that offers a larger jackpot prize for winning within a certain quantity of numbers called, and a progressive jackpot is one that may increase per session until it is won.
Commercial bingo games in the US are primarily offered by casinos (and then only in the state of Nevada), and by Native American bingo halls, which are often housed in the same location as Native American-run casinos. In Nevada, bingo is offered mainly by casinos that cater to local gamblers, and not the famous tourist resorts. They usually offer one-hour sessions, on the odd hours, e.g. 9am, 11am, 1pm daily, typically from 9am through 11pm, with relatively modest stakes except for coverall jackpots. Station Casinos, a chain of locals-oriented casinos in Las Vegas, offers a special game each session, called 'Jumbo' that ties all of its properties together with a large progressive jackpot. Most Bingo parlors in Las Vegas use hand held machines on which the games are played, except the Station Casino, the Fiesta Casino which has paper bingo cards and no machines. Native American games are typically offered for only one or two sessions a day, and are often played for higher stakes than charity games in order to draw players from distant places. Some also offer a special progressive jackpot game that may tie together players from multiple bingo halls.
As well as bingo played in house, the larger commercial operators play some games linked by telephone across several, perhaps dozens, of their clubs. This increases the prize money, but reduces the chance of winning; both due to the greater number of players.
Bingo halls are sometimes linked together (as by Loto Quebec in Canada) in a network to provide alternative winning structures and bigger prizes.
Bingo is also the basis for online games sold through licensed lotteries. Tickets are sold as for other numbers games, and the players get receipts with their numbers arranged as on a regular bingo card. The daily or weekly draw is normally broadcast on television. These games offer higher prizes and are more difficult to win.
The bingo logic is frequently used on scratch card games. The numbers are pre-drawn for each card and hidden until the card is scratched. In lotteries with online networks the price is electronically confirmed to avoid fraud based on physical fixing.
Some gay bars and other LGBT-oriented organizations in both Canada and the United States also stage bingo events, commonly merged with a drag show and billed as 'Drag Bingo' or 'Drag Queen Bingo'.[6] 'Drag Bingo' events were first launched in Seattle in the early 1990s as a fundraiser for local HIV/AIDS charities.[6] They have since expanded to many other cities across North America, supporting a diverse range of charities.[6]
Bingo has gone beyond a fundraising role and is often featured in bars and nightclubs as a social and entertainment event, attracting a loyal following of regular players. Many venues promote a bingo event to attract customers at off-peak times, such as weeknights and Sundays, which are traditionally slower for such businesses. The games are called by drag and non-drag hosts alike and often include ancillary activities such as cabaret shows, contests and other themed activities that add interest and encourage audience participation. Customers are invited to play for a chance to win cash and other prizes.
With one bingo hall for every 6,800 residents, Cheektowaga, New York is believed to have the highest concentration of bingo halls in the United States. The suburb of Buffalo's large Polish-AmericanCatholic population is believed to be a factor for bingo's outsized popularity in Western New York, which has five times as many bingo halls per capita as the rest of the state.[7]
Variations[edit]
U-Pick'Em bingo[edit]
A common form of bingo which allows players to mark the numbers they wish to monitor for a win. While this game closely resembles Keno, a game invented in China which predates the Han Dynasty, it is recognized as a variant of bingo and is permitted in almost all jurisdictions.[citation needed]
Shotgun Bingo[edit]
Also known as Quickie Bingo, Turbo Bingo and similar names, these games are often played in between regular games with cards sold separately from the main game package. Players typically only play one or two cards and the numbers are called as quickly as the bingo balls come out.[citation needed]
Quick Shot bingo[edit]
A game where numbers are pre-drawn and players purchase sealed bingo cards which are then matched against the pre-drawn numbers. If a specified pattern is achieved, then the player usually wins a prize according to a prize table. Some versions are played until a player achieves a top level prize and then new numbers are drawn and the game begins anew. This type of bingo may be played over days, weeks or months depending on the difficulty of achieving a top level prize.[citation needed]
Bonanza bingo[edit]
Typically 43 to 48 numbers are pre-drawn at the beginning of a bingo session. The numbers pre-drawn can be odd, even or the first 43 numbers that pop out the machine. Players purchase cards and mark out all even, odd or pre-drawn numbers. At a designated time, the caller asks if anyone has bingo. If no one does, the caller then draws one ball at a time until someone shouts bingo. This game is sometimes played as a 'progressive' game, where the jackpot increases if no one hits bingo before the desired number of balls are called. If no one has achieved bingo before or on the desired ball count then the game is played again in another session in which the desired ball count increases by one and the jackpot is increased also. The player who hits bingo after the desired ball count does not win the jackpot but does win a consolation prize. If a player does hit bingo in the right number of numbers then they win all the money in the jackpot. The ball count goes back to 43 after the jackpot is won and the ball count increases by one until the jackpot is won again.[citation needed]
Facebook bingo[edit]
Bingo on Facebook differs from traditional online or land based bingo games. Most games feature 'power-ups' which give individual players an advantage on winning the game when using such power-ups. Players can also collect, buy and share virtual items with friends on the Facebook platform. This adds to the community element which is otherwise not experienced in other forms of online and land-based bingo.[citation needed]
Horse racing bingo[edit]
Up to 15 players are randomly issued a number from 1 to 15 which corresponds with the top row of the bingo flashboard. Numbers are then drawn and the first person to have all five numbers in their column be drawn wins. This is a fast-paced and exciting form of bingo typically played in fraternal organizations.[citation needed]
Table bingo[edit]
With the expansion of Tribal gaming across the US, there are numerous versions of bingo which now emulate the fast action of casino like table games but utilize the principals of bingo where players mark and monitor matrices cards with chips. Casino games like Roulette, Acey Duecy and Money Wheel have bingo counterparts that are permitted to be played under bingo licenses in many parts of the country.[citation needed]
Electronic bingo[edit]
The advent of computer technology in bingo has blurred the lines between traditional slot machines and bingo slot machines. To the average person, bingo-based slot machines are physically indistinguishable from an RNG based slot machine typically seen in Atlantic City or Las Vegas. These devices are commonly called Class II machines, because the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act separated bingo, including electronic and mechanical aids, where players play against each other, from Class III slot machines, where player play against the house.[citation needed]
As a result of the passage of SB1180 in 2017, the State of Arizona now allows technological aids for bingo games that functions only as an electronic substitute for bingo cards. These technological aids are not defined by Arizona law or regulation, but one such electronic technological aid consists of a system which includes a network linking player interfaces to a number drawing device (ball-draw server) and an electronic substitute for a 'live' cashier. The player interfaces themselves do not contain random number generators or allow a player to directly deposit cash. Rather, the Arizona technological aid system allows a player to deposit money into a unique individual player's account, pay for the games played out of that account, and at the end of play redeposit the value of any unused games that player may have purchased or won back into that account. The system does not allow the player to print a redemption ticket or receive anything of value directly from the player interface. In Arizona this system is only legally available for use by fraternal organizations, by service organization such as the VFW, American Legion or Amvets, or non-profits such as hospice or volunteer fire departments.
Death bingo[edit]
An inverted game where a player that gets a bingo is eliminated and knocked out of the game. The winner is the player who fills out the most spaces on their board before getting a bingo.[citation needed]
Other forms[edit]
- Buzzword bingo (also called bullshit bingo)[citation needed]
- Bossy bingo, in which a bovine's defecation is used to draw the numbers[citation needed]
- Lingo, a game show incorporating Bingo mechanics and five-letter words
- Slingo, an online game that blends slots and bingo
- Pinoy Bingo Night, a game show in the Philippines with Kris Aquino on ABS-CBN.
- Bingo America, a bingo-based viewer-participation game show on GSN
- National Bingo Night, a bingo-based viewer participation game show on ABC that ended in 2007[8]
Themed variants of the traditional game include drag queen bingo, punk rock bingo, and beach blanket bingo.[9]
See also[edit]
- Online bingo, Bingo played on the Internet
- Screeno, Bingo played by movie audience members
References[edit]
- ^'Not Your Mother's Bingo'. Gaijin Chronicles. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
- ^'History Of Bingo Games - Details About Bingos Past'. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
- ^['https://www.tripsavvy.com/pittsburgh-facts-and-firsts-2706998' First Bingo Game (early 1920s) -- Pittsburgh, PA]
- ^['http://popularpittsburgh.com/pittsburgh-firsts/' In the 1920s, Bingo was born in Pittsburgh]
- ^'History of Bingo'. strangelife.com. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ^ abcKiviat, Barbara (2 May 2007). 'How Drag Queens Took Over Bingo'. Time. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
- ^Mahoney, Bill (November 28, 2017). Bingo loyalists rolled by new state restriction. Politico. Retrieved November 28, 2017.
- ^'National Bingo Night - TV.com'. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
- ^'Drag Queen Bingo - Five15'. Retrieved 3 November 2014.