# How were bingo cards numbered...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-bingo-cards-numbered/738915>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 29, 2015, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-bingo-cards-numbered/738915 "2015-11-29T09:57:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2015, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-bingo-cards-numbered/738915/1 "2015-11-29T09:57:14Z")

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…before the advent of computers? And the balls too?

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**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2015, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-bingo-cards-numbered/738915/2 "2015-11-29T10:13:30Z")

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I’m not sure why you’re asking about the balls. Just paint 75 balls and drop them into the cage, right?

As for the cards themselves, that’s a better question. Google gives me [this Voat thread](https://voat.co/v/AskVoat/comments/306660) that asks the same thing. Up to you what you think of the responses.

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**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2015, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-bingo-cards-numbered/738915/3 "2015-11-29T10:19:42Z")

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No one in that site seems to be sure. Today I played what is the second bingo game in my life. I’m 52.

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**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2015, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-bingo-cards-numbered/738915/4 "2015-11-29T14:22:34Z")

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Not the same question but relevant: [How many possible Bingo cards are there? - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=629075)

[http://strangelife.com/bingodoc/bingohist.html](http://strangelife.com/bingodoc/bingohist.html)

> [@](#):
>
> Lowe sought the services of an elderly professor of mathematics at Columbia University, one Carl Leffler. Lowe’s request was the the professor devise 6,000 new Bingo cards with non repeating number groups. The professor agreed to a fee that remunerated him on a per card basis. As the professor worked on, each card became increasingly difficult. Lowe was impatient, and toward the end the price per card had risen to $100. Eventually, the task was completed. The E.S. Lowe Company had its 6,000 cards - at the expense of the professor’s sanity!

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**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\
**Post date:** [November 29, 2015, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-were-bingo-cards-numbered/738915/5 "2015-11-29T14:31:34Z")

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I’m not sure whether the question is: How were the random numbers selected?, or Once selected, how were they printed?

For the latter question, I think there was a fixed number of possible cards (perhaps 600 originally, or 6000 in one case per the preceding post) and then those 600 (or 6000) cards were just printed over and over like the pages of a 600-page book. If this seems expensively tedious, realize the “bingo books” would have sold better than most books.

From first-hand experience I know that, even in the computer age, publishers sometimes do preparations that seem masochistically tedious.