Coast Casinos Bingo

Disclaimer

This page was written in April 2007, and may be outdated. Bingo rules and prices tend to change frequently. For example, I have an unconfirmed report that the cost of Bonus Coverall cards has gone from 3 for $1 to $1 each.

Card Prices and Value

Coast casinos offer bingo on odd-numbered hours from 9 AM to 11 PM at the Suncoast and Gold Coast casinos. Following are the games played each session.

 

1. Double hardway
2. Single bingo (into)
3. Double bingo
4. Single bingo (into)
5. Double bingo
6. Double bingo (with wild number, into)
7. Triple bingo (with wild number)
8. "Even Bettor" coverall
9. Six pack (into)
10. Nine pack
11. Single Hardway (into)
12. Double Hardway (into)
13. Coverall

 

Each session has bonuses for certain games. A listing of what goes on at each session can be found at the individual web pages for the Suncoast and Gold Coast.

Card Prices and Value

There are four levels of cards you can buy: blue, red, green, and tan. The more expensive the card, the more you will win if you do, on most games. For games 1 to 7 and 9 to 12, a regular blue card win is $50, red $100, green $150, and tan $200. Economies of scale are realized by buying packages of multiple packs.

The table below shows how many cards of each color you get with the various packages you can buy. The "Win Units" column is b + 2×r + 3×g + 4×t; where b, r, g, and t represent the number of each colored pack purchased. It is a measure of the total value of the pack. The "Cost per Win Unit" is the cost divided by the win units. The lower this ratio the better the value.

The last two columns assume that all wins pay according to the color. However, this is usually not the case. The coverall game 13 often does not proportionally reward the premium cards. So the last two columns apply only to those sessions where game 13 fully rewards the premium cards, for example a tan card paying four times a blue card.

 

The table shows the best value is the "O" special, assuming game 13 pays full value for the premium cards. Otherwise, which is usually the case, I would recommend buying only blue cards in groups of 4 or 8. As of this writing, the only sessions that pay the full amount for premium cards on game 13 are the 11 AM, 5 PM, and 11 PM at both the Gold Coast and Suncoast. At those times I would purchase the O special, otherwise buy only blue backs in groups of 4 or 8.

Validation

For a fee of $2 for regular packs, and $4 for small and large rainbows, the player can "Validate" his cards. A percentage (unknown to me) of all validation fees goes into progressive "Cash Ball" jackpots. At the beginning of each session a ball will be drawn at random and established as the Cash Ball. It is then returned to the hopper. After that point, if any player calls bingo when the cash ball is drawn he will win the progressive Cash Ball jackpot for that session.

At some point the jackpots will grow large enough to make validating a good bet. However, large cash ball jackpots also induce more competition. As of this writing I don't have enough information to advise on when the Cash Ball jackpots are large enough to validate. However I present a history of Cash Ball jackpots should you wish to compare current jackpots to historical. Given the choice between never validating and always validating, I would choose never validating.

Bonus Coverall Cards

Bonus Coverall Cards are very similar to Station Casinos Countdown cards. They cost $1 for a strip of 3 cards. The maximum purchase is 30 strips. If the player validates all other regular cards, then the Bonus Coverall cards will be validated for free.

Bonus Coverall cards play as blue cards only for games 11, 12, and 13. Depending on the session, much of the prize money is won in game 13. Thus the value of a Bonus Coverall card can come close to that of a blue card, in particular at the sessions that award $3,000 in game 13.

In addition, if the player gets a coverall in 50 balls or fewer on a Bonus Coverall card the player will win $25,000. The probability of a coverall in 50 balls or fewer is 1 in 212,085. The value of the jackpot alone is 11.79 cents per card, or 35.36 cents per strip.

At a price of 33.33 cents each the cards are a good buy for the jackpot alone. Even without the jackpot I believe Bonus Coverall cards to be a good buy at the sessions with premium wins for game 13. Between the $25,000 jackpot and blue card value in games 11 to 13, Bonus Coverall cards offer an outstanding value — Perhaps the best bet you'll ever get in Vegas.

Even Bettor

In the Even Bettor game all 38 odd numbers are pre-called. The odd numbers on Even Bettor cards are conveniently pre-marked. However the Even Bettor cards are evidently not entirely randomly drawn. Based on a sample of 246 cards I collected, the number of odds pre-marked did not match statistical expectations. The table below shows the distribution of even numbers pre-marked and compares that to the expected number based on 246 cards.

 

The lower right cell shows a chi-squared statistic of 53.7. The probability that a chi-squared statistic with 24 degrees of freedom will be 53.7 or higher is 1 in 2,140.

Assuming my sampling is representative of all cards, the next table shows the breakeven point the meter must reach for the Even Bettor cards to be a fair bet, before considering the value of the consolation prize.

 

My advice is to wait until the Even Bettor ball reaches 54 before buying any cards.

Other bingo pages

My general bingo page.
History of Coast Casinos Cash Ball jackpots.
My probabilities in bingo page.
Coast Casinos bingo official web site.
Station Casinos bingo official web site

Written by: Michael Shackleford