Tambolaतम्बोला

Players and tickets

Two to eight people play, and the computer can take any empty seat. Everyone plays one ticket.

A ticket has three rows and nine columns. Each row holds five numbers and four blanks, so a ticket has 15 numbers. The first column holds numbers from 1 to 9, the second from 10 to 19, and so on up to the last column, which holds 80 to 90. Every column has at least one number, and the numbers in a column get bigger from top to bottom.

The tickets are printed the way real ticket books are: in strips of six that use every number from 1 to 90 exactly once. With up to six players, all the tickets come from one strip, so no number is on two tickets. With seven or eight, they come from two strips, so a number can be on two tickets at most.

Calling the numbers

The caller draws the numbers one at a time, at random, until the game ends. A new number comes about every three or four seconds at the normal speed, and Computer speed in the settings makes the calling quicker or slower. After a claim, the caller waits a moment longer.

The latest number is shown on the big token, the caller's board shows every number called so far, and a count shows how many of the 90 are out.

The caller can pause the game and carry on. When you play with friends, the person who made the table is the caller.

Marking your ticket

When a number on your ticket is called, tap it to ink it. Only numbers that have been called can be marked, and the newest number glows on your ticket when it is yours.

Your marks are there to help you see. A claim is checked against the numbers called, not against your marks, just as a caller checks a ticket against the board.

The prizes

Six prizes are played. Each can be won once a game, and one ticket can win several of them, even with the same number:

• Early five, 20 points: any five numbers on the ticket. It has to be claimed on the number that makes your fifth; after that the chance is gone for your ticket.
• Top line, 30 points: all five numbers of the top row.
• Middle line, 30 points: all five numbers of the middle row.
• Bottom line, 30 points: all five numbers of the bottom row.
• Four corners, 20 points: the first and last numbers of the top row and of the bottom row. The middle row does not count.
• Full house, 70 points: all 15 numbers on the ticket.

Claiming a prize

Tap the prize below your ticket as soon as the number that completes it is called. A claim has to be made before the next number. Once the caller moves on, a late claim is turned down: the chance is gone for your ticket, but the prize stays open for everyone else.

The first good claim takes the prize, and its button shows who holds it. If the same number completes the same prize on another ticket, that ticket can still claim it until the next number is called, and the two share the points equally. This can only happen with seven or eight players, when a number can be on two tickets.

A claim for a prize your ticket has not completed is a wrong claim. It is turned down and costs nothing, unless you play with bogeys (see the house rules below).

The end of the game

The game ends once the full house has been taken and the next number is due. It also ends early when no prize that is left can still be won, for example when every ticket has gone past the full house without claiming it.

The player with the most points wins, and players level on the top score share the win. If nobody claims a prize in time, the game is a draw.

Points, not money

At many parties tambola is played for money, with the ticket money paying for the prizes. Played for money it is gambling, which Nepali law forbids apart from small games that the government approves at fairs and festivals. This table plays for points only: they cannot be bought, traded or carried over, and they are gone when the game ends.

Where these rules come from

Tambola, also called housie in India, is the 90-ball game that Britain plays as bingo. Kathmandu played it for years as bingo in a hall at the Kathmandu Fun Park, with claims for the first, second and third line and the full house. Every host sets a few rules of their own, so this table follows what the sources agree on and makes these choices:

• The tickets follow the usual 90-ball layout and come from strips of six, as real ticket books do.
• The six prizes are the ones most apps and parties play. Some parties add more, such as a second full house, jaldi seven or a pyramid.
• A claim has to come before the next number is called, as the Octro Tambola rules put it. A late claim wins nothing, and it is never counted as a bogey.
• Two good claims on the same number share the prize, as at the online housie night in the sources below. JioTambola gives a prize only to the first to claim it, and that housie night cancels a prize when more than two people call it at once.
• A wrong claim is turned down unless you choose bogeys. JioTambola cancels a bogey ticket for the whole day; the bogey rule here rules the ticket out of that one prize.
• Prize money is set by each organiser, and there is no standard split. The points here are the table's own choice: the full house is worth the most, and a line more than early five or four corners.

Marking

I mark my ticket is the party way: tap each of your numbers when it is called. With Mark for me, every number called is inked on all the tickets at once, so you only have to watch for prizes. Claiming is always up to you.

A wrong claim

Is turned down is the friendly rule: a claim for a prize your ticket has not completed is refused and costs nothing. Is a bogey is the strict party rule: the ticket is out of that prize for the rest of the game, though it can still win the others. A late claim is only turned down either way.

House rules this table does not use

A second or third full house, jaldi seven, the pyramid, the centre number, breakfast, lunch and dinner, several tickets for one player, and a prize cancelled when more than two people call it. This table plays the six prizes above with one ticket each.