Odds of winning bingo twice in a row?
December 10th, 2010 at 10:07:02 PM
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He folks,
This is not a gambling question.
I was at a company party, and we played a bingo type game.
Each card had sixteen squares, each with a picture. However, not all the cards had the same pictures.
So assuming there were 2 different cards, and a total of 32 different pictures that could be called out, and there were
10 people playing, can someone give me rough odds of the same person winning 2 games in a row? We only had to match 4 squares. I would say
in each game there were no more than 15 pictures called out before the same person won.
Thanks, Colby
This is not a gambling question.
I was at a company party, and we played a bingo type game.
Each card had sixteen squares, each with a picture. However, not all the cards had the same pictures.
So assuming there were 2 different cards, and a total of 32 different pictures that could be called out, and there were
10 people playing, can someone give me rough odds of the same person winning 2 games in a row? We only had to match 4 squares. I would say
in each game there were no more than 15 pictures called out before the same person won.
Thanks, Colby
December 10th, 2010 at 10:23:06 PM
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If you only care about who wins, and you assume everyone is equally skilled at daubing/claiming bingo, then the chances for each person to win any game are 1 in 10. After someone wins the first game, the chances that that person wins the second game are also 1 in 10.
"In my own case, when it seemed to me after a long illness that death was close at hand, I found no little solace in playing constantly at dice."
-- Girolamo Cardano, 1563
December 10th, 2010 at 10:50:04 PM
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Ok, should I be asking what is the probability?
December 10th, 2010 at 10:53:15 PM
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It's the same question. There's always a winner in a bingo game, so it's not an issue of what the chances are of winning, just of who wins. If you and I play bingo by ourselves, we each have a 1 in 2 chance of winning. To win 2 in a row, either I win two (probability = 1/2 x 1/2 = 1/4) or you win two (also = 1/4) so the total is again 1/2. With 10 players, it's 1 in 10. The conditional probability of a certain player winning the subsequent game after they have won the first game is also 1 in 10. If your question is "what are the chances of John winning two games in a row" (where John is one of the 10 players) then that's 1 in 100.
That's different than asking questions like "how many picks, on average, to win the game". That has to do with the cards, the balls, the game-ending pattern, the number of players, etc. But just the question of winning only has to do with how many players there are (again, assuming nobody sleeps a bingo).
That's different than asking questions like "how many picks, on average, to win the game". That has to do with the cards, the balls, the game-ending pattern, the number of players, etc. But just the question of winning only has to do with how many players there are (again, assuming nobody sleeps a bingo).
"In my own case, when it seemed to me after a long illness that death was close at hand, I found no little solace in playing constantly at dice."
-- Girolamo Cardano, 1563
