How to play Tambola
Housie/Tambola is played on a basic principle. The organizer/caller calls the Number one at a time and players need to strike Numbers on their tickets. Tambola/Housie can be played in many different ways depending on the competency level of the target audience.
American version of Tambola is called 'Bingo' and it is slightly different from Tambola.
Generally, Tambola is played with Numbers (1-90) being called out by 1 person/caller and players striking out those Numbers on their Tickets.
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Prepare to play Tambola
Sell Tambola Tickets at a fixed or mutually-agreed upon price to everyone who wants to play.
With the ticket(s), hand out a pen/pencil/toothpick to the players to strike the called Numbers in their tickets.
Decide the cash-prizes for the decided winning points.
Winning points can be like:
Early 5
the ticket with first five struck numbers
First Row/Top Row
the ticket with all numbers struck in top row first
Second Row/Middle Row
the ticket with all numbers struck in middle row first
Third Row/Bottom Row
the ticket with all numbers struck in bottom row first
Corners
the ticket with all 4 corner numbers struck first (1st and last numbers of top and bottom rows)
Corner with Star
the ticket with all 4 corner and center-most numbers struck first (1st and last numbers of top and bottom rows along with center-most number of the middle row)
Full House/First House
the ticket with all its numbers struck first
Second House
the ticket with all its numbers struck second
and so on ...
Start Playing Tambola
The CALLER will start the Housie-Tambola app and calls out the numbers or use Shout out feature.
If a number called by caller exists on a player's ticket, then the player has to strike it.
Once a particular Winning point is achieved by a player, he has to claim for it immediately.
caller has to verify the winning by matching the struck numbers on the ticket with the called out numbers. CALLER then declares if the winning has been successfully claimed. If not, the winning point is still available to be claimed.
Game ends when all the FULL HOUSE are successfully claimed.