- Maths reviewed by Josh Miller
- Tested by Diana Westfield
Sixty books at £5 is £300. Pay out 60% over six games and each game has £30 of prizes: £6 for one line, £9 for two lines, £15 for the full house. The other £120 stays with the club or the cause. The CasinoCalcs bingo prize calculator above runs that maths for any size of night, for 90-ball or 75-ball, and splits a prize when two players call on the same number.
Bingo prize calculator: the payout formula
Prize pot = books sold × price × prize share Per game = prize pot ÷ games Line / two lines / full house = per game × your split
The prize share is the one number to agree first. Too low and regulars stop coming. Too high and the night doesn’t raise much. Somewhere between 50% and 70% covers most club and fundraiser nights, with the rest paying for the hall and the cause.
A simple bingo payout chart
| Books at £5 | Pot at 60% | Per game (6 games) | Full house |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | £90 | £15 | £7.50 |
| 60 | £180 | £30 | £15 |
| 100 | £300 | £50 | £25 |
| 150 | £450 | £75 | £37.50 |
Fixed prizes are the alternative: decide £10 a line and £25 a house before you know the numbers. That works if you’re sure of the crowd, but a quiet night can leave you paying out more than you took. Linking prizes to sales, as here, can’t go wrong that way.
Shared prizes
When two players call on the same number, most halls split the prize evenly. Set “Winners sharing one prize” to 2 to see what each gets. Write the rule on the board before the first game, along with what counts as a valid call; it saves an argument at 10pm.
Need the cards and a caller? The bingo card generator prints them, the bingo caller draws the numbers, and the bingo odds calculator shows each player’s chance of winning.