Quick answer
Charitable bingo is still big business in the US. Texas bingo has generated about $27.6 billion in gross receipts since 1982, Minnesota players wagered $159.7 million on bingo in fiscal 2024, and Massachusetts bingo grossed $14.5 million in 2023. Players typically get back 72% to 79% as prizes. There are about 5.52 × 10^26 possible 75-ball cards.
There’s a lot of made-up bingo data online. This page includes only figures we could trace to a regulator’s report, a court record, a peer-reviewed study or our own calculations, and every figure is dated. There is no official, current national total for US bingo spending, so we show the best state-level numbers instead. We’ll update this page as new annual reports are published.
Bingo statistics at a glance
| Statistic | Figure | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Texas charitable bingo gross receipts since 1982 | ~$27.6 billion | TDLR, Aug. 2025 |
| Texas bingo prizes awarded since 1982 | ~$20.6 billion | TDLR, Aug. 2025 |
| Texas bingo money to charitable causes since 1982 | ~$1.37 billion | TDLR, Aug. 2025 |
| Minnesota bingo gross receipts (paper + electronic) | $159.7 million | MN Gambling Control Board, FY2024 |
| Massachusetts bingo gross receipts | $14.48 million | MA Lottery, calendar 2023 |
| Share of bingo receipts paid as prizes | 71.9%–78.9% | MA 2023, MN FY2024 (our calculation) |
| US charitable gaming spending (all types) | $7.9 billion, ~45% bingo | NAFTM 2002 report, cited in Paarlberg et al. 2005 |
| Possible 75-ball bingo cards | 552,446,474,061,128,648,601,600,000 | Our calculation |
| Year Lowe began selling “Bingo” | 1929 | Multiple histories |
How much money does charitable bingo raise?
Hundreds of millions of dollars a year in the biggest states, but only a small share reaches charity. Each state regulates and reports bingo differently, so the figures below aren’t directly comparable. Each is the latest we could verify.
Texas
Texas has run licensed charitable bingo since 1982. According to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR):
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Gross receipts since 1982 | ~$27.6 billion |
| Prizes awarded since 1982 | ~$20.6 billion (about 75% of gross) |
| Distributed to charitable causes since 1982 | ~$1.37 billion (about 5% of gross) |
| Adjusted gross receipts, calendar 2024 | $199.67 million |
| Net proceeds, calendar 2024 | $28.7 million (14.39% of adjusted gross) |
“Adjusted gross receipts” means gross receipts minus prizes. The percentage columns for the long-run totals are our calculations.
Key Texas dates: charitable bingo was legalized in 1981 and first licensed in 1982. A 1991 amendment to the Texas Constitution (Article 3, Section 47) protected it as an exception to the state’s gambling ban. Oversight moved from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to the Texas Lottery Commission in 1994, and in 2025 Senate Bill 3070 transferred it to TDLR.
Minnesota
Minnesota describes its charitable gambling industry as the largest in the nation, though almost all of it is pull-tabs. Figures for fiscal year 2024 (July 2023 to June 2024):
| Game | Gross receipts | Net receipts (after prizes) | Paid back as prizes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper bingo | $88.06 million | $21.99 million | 75.0% |
| Electronic linked bingo | $71.65 million | $15.09 million | 78.9% |
| All bingo | $159.71 million | $37.07 million | 76.8% |
| All charitable gambling | $4.94 billion | $712.1 million | 85.6% |
Bingo was about 3.2% of Minnesota’s charitable gambling receipts; pull-tabs made up 95%. Paper bingo receipts rose 11.4% and electronic bingo 12.4% over fiscal 2023. Separately, nonprofits running smaller “exempt” events reported $3.6 million in bingo gross receipts. Payout percentages are our calculations from the board’s figures.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts calls bingo “Beano” in law and legalized it on September 29, 1971. For calendar 2023, the state lottery commission reported:
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Bingo gross receipts | $14,480,983 |
| Bingo prizes | $10,405,629 (71.9% of gross) |
| Bingo taxes (5%) | $734,085 |
| Bingo’s share of all charitable gaming receipts | 30.8% |
| Licensed bingo organizations | 68 (down from 75 in 2022) |
| Most common game day | Thursday (16 of 68 licensees) |
| Senior citizens’ recreational bingo IDs on file | 309 |
Who runs bingo in Massachusetts (2023):
| Organization type | Licensees |
|---|---|
| Fraternal | 32 |
| Church or religious | 22 |
| Veterans | 8 |
| Other | 4 |
| Nonprofit athletic association | 2 |
Indiana (2001)
An older but detailed snapshot: a 2005 study in Nonprofit Management & Leadership analyzed Indiana’s 2001 charitable gaming data. The state’s 613 reporting bingo organizations had $495 million in gross bingo revenue and $46.2 million in net revenue, about 9.3%. The average organization grossed over $800,000 but kept about 12% as profit. Only about 16% of the organizations were churches or religious schools.
National estimate (2002)
There is no current official national figure. The most-cited estimate comes from the National Association of Fundraising Ticket Manufacturers (NAFTM), whose 2002 market report put US charitable gaming spending at $7.9 billion, about 45% of it from bingo. The same industry reports said bingo payouts ran about 50% to 75% of receipts and that the average charitable gaming organization kept about 10% of gross receipts. Treat these as dated, industry-sourced figures.
How much of each bingo dollar is paid back in prizes?
Roughly 72 to 79 cents, based on the latest state data.
| Report | Prizes as share of gross |
|---|---|
| Massachusetts bingo, 2023 | 71.9% |
| Texas bingo, cumulative since 1982 | ~74.6% |
| Minnesota paper bingo, FY2024 | 75.0% |
| Minnesota electronic linked bingo, FY2024 | 78.9% |
We calculated each share from published prize and receipt totals. See our bingo odds guide for what this means for players.
Bingo math statistics
All figures below are calculated by our editorial team for standard 75-ball bingo. The methods are explained in our odds guide.
| Statistic | Figure |
|---|---|
| Balls in a US game | 75 (B 1–15, I 16–30, N 31–45, G 46–60, O 61–75) |
| Numbers on a card | 24 + free space |
| Possible distinct cards | 552,446,474,061,128,648,601,600,000 (≈ 5.52 × 10^26) |
| Possible distinct number sets (order ignored) | 111,007,923,832,370,565 (≈ 1.11 × 10^17) |
| Fewest calls to win a line | 4 (any line through the free space) |
| Most numbers you can mark with no line | 19 |
| Odds of four corners on the first 4 calls | 1 in 1,215,450 |
| Average calls for one card to complete any line | about 41 |
| Average calls for one card to black out | 73 (72.96) |
| Odds of one card blacking out within 50 calls | 1 in 212,085 |
| Odds of a blackout in exactly 24 calls | about 1 in 25.8 quintillion |
How fast games end, by room size
| Cards in play | Typical first single-line win | Typical first blackout |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Call 26 | Call 69 |
| 100 | Call 16 | Call 64 |
| 500 | Call 12 | Call 61 |
| 1,000 | Call 11 | Call 59 |
Typical means the median: half of games finish sooner. Line figures are from simulation; blackout figures are exact.
Bingo history in numbers
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| c. 1530 | A lottery game called lotto is being played in Italy, the ancestor of bingo |
| 1778 | The French game Le Lotto uses cards with 27 squares in three rows of nine |
| Early 1920s | Hugh J. Ward standardizes a bingo-style game at carnivals around Pittsburgh; he publishes a rule book in 1933 |
| Dec. 1929 | Toy salesman Edwin S. Lowe sees “Beano” at a carnival and starts selling “Bingo”: 12 cards for $1, 24 for $2 |
| Early 1930s | Lowe reportedly hires Columbia math professor Carl Leffler to create about 6,000 unique cards |
| 1934 | An estimated 10,000 bingo games are played each week |
| 1971 | Massachusetts legalizes bingo (Sept. 29) |
| 1973 | Lowe sells the E.S. Lowe Company to Milton Bradley for $26 million |
| 1979 | The Seminole Tribe opens a high-stakes bingo hall in Hollywood, Florida |
| 1981 | Federal appeals court rules Florida can’t enforce its bingo limits on the Seminole reservation (Oct. 5); Texas legalizes charitable bingo |
| 1987 | Supreme Court rules 6–3 in California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians (Feb. 25) that states with regulatory, not prohibitory, gambling laws can’t enforce them on reservations |
| 1988 | Congress passes the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, classing bingo as Class II gaming |
| 2025 | Texas transfers charitable bingo oversight to TDLR (SB 3070) |
Accounts of Lowe’s discovery differ on location: most say near Atlanta or Jacksonville, Georgia, while one early history says Kentucky. The 6,000-card Leffler story is widely repeated, but its colorful ending, that Leffler went insane, is considered a myth. More in our history of bingo.
Bingo and the brain: research numbers
- 112 participants took part in a 2002 University of Southampton study that found bingo players, young and old, were faster and more accurate on tests of mental speed than non-players. The groups differed in education and income, so it shows an association, not cause and effect.
- A 2011 Boston University study of healthy younger and older adults, people with Alzheimer’s and people with Parkinson’s found that larger cards and fewer cards improved performance in every group, with extra benefit from bolder numbers for people with Alzheimer’s.
See our bingo for seniors guide for how to put that into practice.
What we left out, and why
Plenty of widely shared “bingo statistics” didn’t make this page because we couldn’t verify them, including:
- current figures for the total number of US bingo players,
- national player demographics,
- current nationwide bingo revenue, and
- precise market-size figures for online bingo in the US.
If a regulator or researcher publishes reliable data on these, we’ll add it. For state-by-state rules and regulators, see our state bingo laws pages, and for terminology, our bingo glossary.
Frequently asked questions
How much money does bingo make in the US?
There's no single official national figure. State reports give a picture: Texas charitable bingo has generated about $27.6 billion in gross receipts since 1982, and Minnesota bingo took in $159.7 million in fiscal 2024. A 2002 industry report estimated $7.9 billion in US charitable gaming, about 45% from bingo.
What percentage of bingo money goes to charity?
Usually a small share. Texas reports that about $1.37 billion of $27.6 billion in bingo gross receipts since 1982 went to charitable causes, roughly 5%. Most money goes back to players as prizes, and much of the rest covers expenses.
How many possible bingo cards are there?
There are 552,446,474,061,128,648,601,600,000 possible 75-ball bingo cards, about 5.52 × 10^26, when the order of numbers in each column counts.
What percentage of bingo money is paid out in prizes?
In recent state reports, bingo paid back 71.9% of gross receipts in Massachusetts (2023), 75.0% for Minnesota paper bingo and 78.9% for Minnesota electronic linked bingo (fiscal 2024).
When did bingo start in the US?
Bingo took its US name and form after December 1929, when toy salesman Edwin S. Lowe saw a carnival game called Beano and began selling his own version. The game descends from Italian lotto, played by about 1530.
Which organizations run the most bingo?
Fraternal and veterans groups are major operators. In Massachusetts in 2023, 32 of 68 licensed bingo organizations were fraternal, 22 were churches or religious groups and 8 were veterans organizations.
Sources
- Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Charitable Bingo at a Glance (Aug. 2025)
- Minnesota Gambling Control Board, Annual Report FY2024
- Massachusetts State Lottery Commission, Charitable Games 2023 Annual Report
- Paarlberg, Nesbit, Clerkin & Christensen, Charitable Bingo in Indiana: Issues and Implications, Nonprofit Management & Leadership 15(4), 2005
- Bingo (American version): history
- EBSCO Research Starters: Bingo (game)
- Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Butterworth, 658 F.2d 310 (5th Cir. 1981)
- California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, 480 U.S. 202 (1987)
- 25 U.S. Code § 2703: definitions, including Class II gaming (Indian Gaming Regulatory Act)
- HealthDay: Want More Brain Power? Try Bingo (2002)
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