How bingo scratch-off games work (and how to play them)

Bingo scratch-offs take longer to play than a straight number match and feel more like an actual game, which is a good part of their appeal, though the first one can be genuinely confusing when you're faced with a caller's card, several bingo cards and a legend full of patterns.

The pieces on the ticket

There are two main parts to work with. The caller's card is a list of called numbers, exactly like the numbers someone would read out in a bingo hall, and then there are your bingo cards, usually two to four small grids of numbers. Somewhere on the ticket you'll also find a legend or prize key showing which patterns win and what each one pays, and that's the part worth reading before you scratch anything, since it tells you what you're aiming at.

How to play it

Start by scratching the caller's card to reveal all the called numbers, then work through your bingo cards and mark every number that also appears on that list. When you've finished, look at what your marks have completed, and if they form one of the winning patterns on any card you collect whatever the legend assigns to it. Many games let each card win separately and some pay considerably more for the harder patterns, so it's worth checking every card against every pattern before you decide you've lost.

Which patterns pay

The exact patterns shift from game to game, which is why the legend matters, but the common ones will be familiar to anyone who has played bingo before: a complete horizontal row, a complete vertical column, a diagonal, the four corners, and a full-card blackout where every number on the card is matched. As a rule the harder the pattern the larger the prize, with blackout usually paying the top amount, and Ohio's Bingo Times 25 is a current example of the format.

For scratch ticket payout percentage and how many prizes are still unclaimed, check out our ValueScore™