Bingo

Updated by Darryl Waterhouse on 3 November 2026 7 min read

Bingo for quiz nights, events, conferences and classrooms. You run the caller from the admin - by hand or automatically, with a big display for a projector - while players join on their phones and claim their prizes. Or print numbered cards and check any card against the calls. Bingo is a Pro Tool, and can be gifted to a site.

What it does

Three kinds of card.
- 75-ball - a 5 x 5 card, columns B I N G O (1-15, 16-30, 31-45, 46-60, 61-75), with a free square in the middle.
- 90-ball - the UK ticket: 3 rows of 5 numbers spread over 9 columns (1-9, 10-19 ... 80-90).
- Words and pictures - your own list of words (or pictures with words) - at least 24, and more for a bigger card, on a 3 x 3, 4 x 4 or 5 x 5 card. Good for classrooms, buzzword bingo at a conference, baby showers and team days.
Prizes: a line, two lines and a full house - play for any of them, in that order. On a 75-ball or word card a line is any row, column or diagonal; on a 90-ball ticket it is a row across.
Played on phones, on paper, or both. On phones, players type a name on your page and the server deals them a card. On paper, you print numbered cards. Both can play the same calls at once.
Fair by design. Each call is picked by the server at the moment you press Draw, from what has not been called yet - nobody, not even the caller screen, can see what comes next. Every claim is checked by the server against what has actually been called, in the order the claims arrive: the first right claim takes the prize.

Getting started

Switch Bingo on in Tools.
Open Tools > Games > Bingo and choose New game.
Give it a title, pick the card type and the prizes. The sample card shows what a card looks like - Deal another shows a different one.
Set the status to Open and save.
Put the player's card on a page:

[bingo id="quiz-night" /]

Open the Caller and start calling.

The id is the game's Short name, shown with its shortcodes in the editor and the list.

Every setting

Title, Short name and Introduction (shown above the join button).
Status - Draft (not shown at all), Open (players can join) or Closed (nobody new can join; players already in carry on). The caller, Print and Test work whatever the status.
Played - On phones, Paper cards (nobody joins on a phone) or Phones and paper.
Opens and Closes - optional times when players can join.
Most players - 0 means no limit. When it is full, the page says so.
Joining after calling starts - Allowed (the default): someone who joins part-way through gets a card, but the calls made before they joined are crossed through on it and never count towards their claims, so nobody can keep joining until they are dealt a card that has already won. Refused until the next game: once the first call is made, nobody new can join until you start a new game.
Card type, and for words and pictures the Card size, A free square in the middle (3 x 3 and 5 x 5 only) and the list itself.
Words and pictures - one per line. For a picture, put its address after a |, for example Cat | /media/cat.png (copy the address from Media) or any https:// address. The text is still shown, and is what the caller reads out. Every item must be different. You need at least 24, and at least 6 more than the squares on a card so that every card is different: 24 for 3 x 3 and 4 x 4, 30 for 5 x 5 with a free square, 31 without. A picture prints on paper cards only when it is in Media (/media/...) or an https:// address. Fill with an example list gives you a list to start from.
Prizes - Line, Two lines, Full house: tick the ones you play for.
Auto-dab - called squares are marked on the phone for the player. Switch it off and players tap each square themselves when it is called (and must spot their own line). A square that has not been called will not take a dab.
Animations - the ball pops, dabs stamp and a win gets a celebration. Visitors who asked for less motion see none of it.
Auto-draw every (seconds) - how often the next call comes when Auto-draw is on.

Once anything has been called, the cards themselves (card type, size, free square and the list) and the prizes cannot change - start a new game on the caller screen first. Everything else can change at any time.

The caller

Caller (on each game in the list, and on the editor's banner) runs the game.

Draw next makes the next call. The last call shows large in the ball, the calls before it beside it, and every number called is lit on the board below.
Undo last takes back the last call (for a slip of the finger) - unless a prize was won on it. Phones pick up the change on their next look.
Auto-draw every N seconds - the server makes a call on its own clock. Closing the caller does not stop it; switching it off does. It stops by itself when a prize is won, so you can announce the winner, then switch it back on.
New game clears the calls, the winners and the claims, and deals every player a new card. Players stay in - their phones show the new card straight away.
Big display fills the screen with the board for a projector or a TV. Press Space to draw the next call, Escape to leave.
Prizes shows who won each prize and on which call; Claims lists every claim as it arrives, false claims flagged.

On a phone

Players open your page, type a name and press Join the game. Each gets a card no one else in the game has. The page looks for new calls every few seconds (3 by default - see Settings), shows the last call large, and dabs the card for them (or lets them tap, with Auto-dab off). When their card has the prize being played for, the page says so, and Claim sends it to the server:

Right - they win the prize, everyone's page shows the winner, and you get a notice.
Not right - the claim is refused and flagged for you, and that player must wait 10 seconds before claiming again. After 10 false claims they cannot claim for the rest of that game.
Too late - someone else's right claim got there first.

A reload keeps the player in the game with the same card. Two players cannot use the same name in one game. Names are checked for rude words, a hidden field catches robots, and the routes are rate limited (generously - a whole room on one venue Wi-Fi shares one address).

The caller board

Show the calls on any page - a second screen, a projector, or under the game:

[bingo-caller id="quiz-night" /]

It shows the last call large, every number called (or every word and picture called, newest first), the prize being played for and the winners. It updates by itself.

Paper cards

Print cards (in a game's ⋮ menu or on its banner):

Choose how many cards (up to 500) and press Make the cards. Every card is different and numbered.
Print opens a window with just the cards, two across the page, and your browser's print dialog.
Call the game on the caller screen as usual.
Someone shouts "House!"? Type their card number under Check a card: the card opens with every called square marked, and whether it has each prize with the calls so far.

Making more cards later keeps the ones you have (card 7 stays card 7). New set makes a completely different set - the old printed cards can then no longer be checked. Changing the cards themselves in the editor also makes a new set (the editor asks first).

Players and claims

Players lists everyone who joined, when, how many claims they made (false claims flagged) and what they won. Card shows a player's card with the called squares marked - to see a claim for yourself. Remove takes a player out (their phone says so); Remove everyone clears the game. The claims list shows every claim, newest first.

Testing

Test it (in the ⋮ menu) is the real player, on the game as saved - even a draft or a closed one. You get a test card for the game's calls; Draw the next call works as on the caller screen (real players in the game see it too). A test claim is checked like any other but never takes a prize, and a test player is never counted or listed.

Settings

The cog on the Bingo banner holds the defaults for new games (card type, prizes, auto-dab, animations, auto-draw seconds) and Phones look for new calls every (seconds) - 2 to 15, 3 by default. Lower feels more instant; higher is kinder to a busy site. A phone with the page in the background asks three times less often.

A notice goes to the admins for every right claim (Bingo winners in your notification settings).
The sidebar shows a live dot with the number of games being called right now.

Export and import

Export all (on the list) or Export (on a game) saves a file with the game itself - title, cards, prizes and settings. Never its calls, winners, claims, players or printed cards. Import adds the games in a file as drafts beside what you have, ready to call.

Gifting

Bingo can be gifted to a site by Domma - for good, or for a number of days.