Bingo Machines
Bingo machines are the machines that are used to pick the numbers called in a game of bingo. Like many of the machines that are used in other areas of life, bingo machines have evolved over the years from quite simple contraptions to technologically advanced devices, but their purpose remains the same – to make the game of bingo as fair and unbiased as possible.
The simplest bingo machine wasn’t really a machine at all, and consisted of a non-transparent bag containing the numbers 1 to 90. The numbers were then drawn by hand by the bingo caller, who usually averted his eyes to prevent accusations of cheating. Although this technique of drawing numbers was never used in bingo clubs, it was commonly used in home games and small-scale social club and church games.
One step up from the “cloth bag” device was the enclosed barrel. These were much like tombola machines, and allowed numbered balls to be mixed up by rotating the barrel. A panel was then opened and a ball drawn by hand.
The main problem with the enclosed barrel was that numbers still had to be drawn by hand, and this meant that cheating, although extremely rare, was possible. It was the desire to make cheating impossible that led to the development of automatic bingo machines which selected balls at random by using air to push them up a chute. The caller then announced the numbers in the order they emerged from the chute.
Several mechanical variations on the chute principle followed, but then computer technology took over and in many cases dispensed with the need for physical balls. Instead, a software application known as a Random Number Generator (or RNG) is used to select numbers from the range 1 to 90 (1 to 75 for pattern bingo) and the numbers are displayed on a large electronic display as they are announced by the caller.
Online bingo games also use RNG’s to pick numbers at random, but it is interesting to note that many online sites show old-fashioned mechanical bingo machines. Some go so far as to animate balls being produced from a chute. This is interesting because there seems to be something about the traditional bingo machine that people find more endearing than their digital equivalents.
Although digital machines are more efficient than their mechanical predecessors (for example, balls don’t need to be physically reloaded into a digital machine before each and every game) the long history of traditional machines has earned them a special place in our lives. So much so that we are likely to continue thinking in terms of bingo balls and chutes long after the balls themselves have disappeared from the game.
Last Updated: 29/05/2008 13:29:51
