Bingo Cards and The Odds of Winning
It should be noted that creating a set of unique winning cards in no way predicts the outcome of a game. Random selection of the balls ensures Bingo's status as a game of chance. However, the odds of winning a game of Bingo has no relation to the number of Bingo cards that can be created, the number of patterns allowed, or the nature of the patterns. This is due to the fact that even if all 75 balls in a U.S. game must be called, there will always be a winner in a game of Bingo, effectively granting every card an equal chance for success. Therefore, in respect to the cards, the odds of winning are based only in the number of cards in play. If a player is playing five cards and one-hundred cards are in play, his or her odds of winning are 5:100 or 1:20. The only modification to this simple calculation comes from the method of an individual player's actions: how well they hear the caller, how effectively they can daub their cards, how quickly they can shout "Bingo!", etc. However, none of these actions are quantifiable. Therefore, it is better said that the above player's odds are "at best" 1:20 depending on how perfectly the player plays the game.
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