Chicagoan Beats the Odds and Wins $1 Million
7th November, 2007
Bingo is one of the most popular and easy to play games in the world, however not many realise just how much odds are against you when playing. As a social game, bingo is widely appealing as a live game, and seems to attract all types and ages. In England, local bingo halls are everywhere, an integral part of life. In the US, however, bingo halls typically only exist legally on Native American Reservations.
One of the largest bingo halls in the Midwestern US is the Potawatomi Bingo Casino in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was here last month that Karen W. Of Chicago beat the bingo odds and found herself $1 million richer. Karen opted to play the All-Star Game, a special sheet which costs an additional $4. On each card there are numbers at each point of five 5-pointed stars. The object is to cover all five stars in 48 numbers or less. The chances of actually doing this are 1 in 1.7 million.
These odds are not atypical of bingo. Mathematicians who have analysed bingo estimate that there are 552 million billion billion possible combinations using 24 numbers from 1 to 75 on a bingo card. Other studies show that the probability of getting a standard bingo after 10 numbers is 0.081 percent, and after 20 calls, 2.29 percent. The probability of getting a “cover all” in 50 numbers is only 0.00048 percent!
Not only did Karen W. beat her odds, she beat them twice. After she covered the stars, she won herself the ability to spin a wheel with cash denominations ranging from $100,000 to $1 million. Her odds were 1 in 50 that she’d score the big bucks, and sure enough, she landed on the top prize.
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