Housie

Tambola against three computer players, with a voice calling the numbers for you

Single player
cards
luck
party

▶ Play Housie Loads here in the page. No download, no account.

Prefer it full screen? Open Housie on its own.

About Housie

Housie deals you one proper tambola ticket — three rows of nine columns, fifteen numbers, five to a row, every column used, each column drawing from its own band of ten. Three computer players get tickets of their own under the same rules, and all four of you are playing for the same five prizes.

Numbers come out one at a time from a shuffled ninety, and the game speaks each one aloud. You mark your ticket by tapping the number and claim a prize by pressing its button. Nothing is claimed for you. Early Five, Top Line, Middle Line, Bottom Line and Full House are each awarded once, to whoever gets there first, and a Full House ends the round on the spot — so the prizes you were slow on are simply gone.

It is a game of attention rather than decision. The ticket is fixed and the draw is fair; all you control is whether you spot your number before a computer player spots theirs.

What is different about this version

Most digital bingo is you against the draw. Here the three computer players hold real tickets built by the same rules as yours, and they check for a claim within about half a second of every call — so a prize you are entitled to can vanish while you are still hunting for the number. Two details make that survivable. Each computer player claims at most one prize per call, working down the list from Early Five, so when two of their prizes fall due together the later one stays open. And a wrong claim costs you nothing: the button shakes and play continues. An auto-mark switch, off by default, marks for you and turns the round into a pure claiming race.

How to play Housie

A number is called and read aloud. Find it on your ticket and tap it.
Numbers that have not been called yet cannot be marked, so you cannot run ahead.
When a prize pattern is complete, press that prize button to claim it.
Each of the five prizes goes to the first claimant only.
The round ends on a Full House, or when all ninety numbers are out.

Controls

Desktop	Click a number to mark it; click a prize button, or press keys one to five, to claim.
Phone or tablet	Tap numbers on your ticket to mark them and tap a prize button to claim it.
Players	One player. Any other characters on screen are run by the game.

Strategy

The draw cannot be influenced, so everything worth doing sits in the gap between a number being called and a prize being claimed. On the fast setting a number arrives every 2.3 seconds and the computer players resolve their claims about half a second after each call. That is the race. The slow setting gives you five seconds, which is the version where a single ticket is comfortable and where most people should start.

Work out which row is nearest to finishing and keep the claim buttons in your peripheral vision instead of re-reading the whole ticket every call. Early Five is normally settled inside the first twenty numbers and rewards nothing but speed; the three line prizes come much later and you can see them approaching. Because a Full House stops play the instant anyone lands it, a finished line is worth claiming immediately — sitting on a completed Top Line is how people finish a round with nothing.

Auto-mark changes the shape of the game rather than its difficulty. With it on you cannot lose a prize to a missed mark, but you are now reacting to buttons lighting up, which on fast calls is tight. With it off, the useful habit is scanning your ticket in the same order every call — top row left to right, then middle, then bottom — so a number never hides in a corner you skipped.

Mistakes that cost you the game

Hunting for the called number across the whole ticket each time instead of scanning the same three rows in the same order.
Waiting to claim a finished line because the Full House looks close. Somebody else lands the Full House and the round is over.
Leaving auto-mark on and then not watching the claim buttons, which is where the prize is actually won or lost.

Tips

Start on the slow call speed. Five seconds a number is enough to mark and claim unhurried.
Keys one to five claim the five prizes on a keyboard, which beats moving a mouse.
Once a prize is taken, stop tracking it — it cannot be claimed twice.
A rejected claim carries no penalty, so if you think a line is done, press it.
Leave the sound on; the spoken number usually arrives before your eye finds it.