Coverall Bingo

Perhaps this is the single most popular pattern of Bingo played today. It often is the wrap-up game at Bingo halls. It has several names including Coverall, Blackout and Full House. The idea in Coverall is simplicity itself: cover all the numbers on your card!

Let us review the four main variations of Bingo and see how Coverall applies to each one.

In 30-ball Bingo the object of the game is always to cover all the numbers. This is called a Full House.

In 75-ball Bingo the evening's program may have 20 different games but Blackout will usually be the last one. The payout for winning Blackout is usually the highest of all the games in the session. One popular variation in Blackout is called odds or evens. The first number called by the caller will determine which numbers will immediately be covered by all players. If the first number is odd then all players cover all the odd numbers. The same is the case if the first number is even. Then the game continues until someone has covered all their numbers. Most Coverall games require that at least 50 and often as many as 60 numbers be called before there is a winner. But there have been Coverall winners after as few as 43 numbers!

In 90-ball Bingo the game is normally divided into three parts. The 90-ball Bingo card has only three rows so the first part of every game is to cover one row, the second part is to cover two rows, and the last part is Coverall.

You can easily see that Coverall is a tremendously popular single-game objective.