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What equipment do you need for bingo night?
The good news: a lot less than you'd think. Here's the full checklist — what's genuinely essential, what you can skip, and how to run a great night for the price of a coffee.
The essentials
1. Bingo cards (one per player)
Every player needs a card, and no two should be the same. You have two options: buy pre-printed card packs, or print your own. Printing your own is free and lets you add your event name — you can generate and print unique bingo cards here in about a minute. Each card is stamped with a Set code and number, which makes verifying winners trivial later.
2. Something to mark the cards (daubers)
Players need to mark their called numbers. The classic tool is a bingo dauber (a.k.a. bingo dabber) — a chunky ink marker that stamps a big dot. They're cheap, reusable, and part of the fun. In a pinch, regular markers, pens, or even coins/chips work fine on printed cards.
Daubers are one of the few things we can't hand you digitally — they're a physical item — so grab a pack online. A multi-color pack of bingo daubers costs a few dollars and lasts for dozens of nights.
3. A way to call the numbers
You need to draw and announce numbers 1–75 at random. Two ways:
- A traditional ball machine / cage. Classic and tactile, but bulky, pricey, and one more thing to store and haul.
- A digital random caller. BingoBoardTV has one built in — tap 🎲 to draw each ball, or turn on auto-call and it draws hands-free every few seconds and announces each number out loud. No machine, no missing balls, no setup.
4. A board everyone can see (the flashboard)
This is the piece most people overlook, and it's what separates a smooth night from a chaotic one. Players need to see which numbers have been called at a glance. Traditionally that's a big lit-up electronic flashboard — which runs $1,500–$4,000. Or you run a virtual flashboard on the TV you already have: called numbers light up on a giant B‑I‑N‑G‑O grid, with the last call zoomed large. (Here's how to put bingo numbers on a TV — usually just an HDMI cable.)
5. A room, prizes, and a caller
Tables and chairs, prizes appropriate to your buy-in, and one confident person on the microphone. That's the human side sorted.
Nice-to-haves
- A microphone / PA for bigger halls so every call carries.
- A laptop stand and an HDMI cable (get a long one — 15 ft covers most rooms).
- A cash box and a card table near the door for selling cards.
- Spare printed cards for walk-ups.
What you can skip
- A $1,500 electronic flashboard — a TV plus a virtual board does the same job for $9.99/month.
- A ball machine — a digital random caller replaces it.
- Pre-printed card packs — print exactly how many you need, for free.
- Separate winner-checking — verify cards on the board in one click.
The short version
To run a modern bingo night you really only need: printed cards, daubers, a laptop, and a TV. BingoBoardTV covers the digital half of that list — the flashboard, the random caller with voice, the free printable cards, and instant winner verification — for $9.99/month with a free 7-day trial. Bring the daubers and the prizes; we'll handle the rest.
No credit card required · then $9.99/month · cancel anytime.
More guides: Do you need a license for bingo? · How to run a bingo night · How to show bingo numbers on a TV