Perhaps the single most popular question asked in bingo, whether in the traditional, online or televised “national lottery” formats, is “Which numbers come up most often?”.

The simple truth, unfortunately, is that no single number has any greater mathematical or statistical chance of coming up during a game of bingo than any other. The only way in which a number could or would have a better chance of coming up than any other number if all numbers were available to be picked, is if the machine (if a machine was being used to pick the numbers at random) was functioning incorrectly, or if somebody somewhere was cheating! While during some bingo sessions it might seem as though one number is being called during games more than any other, that is not down to anything other than pure chance and coincidence, and is in no way an indication that that number is especially “lucky” or that the same thing will happen during another bingo tournament – because chances are, it won’t! Anybody trying to compose their own numbers on a bingo card or lottery ticket by ‘statistical probabilities’ is probably going to be in for an incredibly frustrating time!

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to increase your odds of winning, however – it’s just that those ways have little to do with the numbers themselves. There are in fact several ways of increasing your chances.

One way to increase your odds is to simply attend games that don’t have as many participants as others. A less popular venue or a game held in bad weather are good choices, as the less people there are playing, the more chance there is that the person calling “Bingo!” will be you.

Aug 30 2010