How to run a bingo night in a pub: the 2026 rules, the three traps, and all 90 traditional calls

A pub can run bingo without any licence as long as it charges no entry fee, takes no cut, gives every penny staked back as prizes, caps stakes at £5 a person a game, keeps under-18s out, and stays under £2,000 a week in stakes or prizes. The house makes nothing on the game itself. The money is the bar. That's the whole legal shape, and the Gambling Commission updated its pubs page on 6 October 2026 with the same rules.

What catches pubs out isn't the headline. It's three smaller things almost nobody mentions: the "bingo and a curry for a tenner" ticket, taking card payments for books, and any game that links your pub to another one. All three are below, then the sums, then every traditional call from Kelly's eye to top of the shop, free to print.

The rules on one page

Bingo in a pub is "exempt gaming" under section 279 of the Gambling Act 2005. The section sets five conditions, the 2007 regulations set the stake limit, and the Commission's code of practice adds how it has to be run. Put together:

Pub bingo rules in England, Wales and Scotland (Gambling Act 2005 s.279, SI 2007/1940, Gambling Commission code of practice)

Rule	What it means behind the bar
No participation fee	No entry fee, no "bingo night ticket", nothing charged just to play
No deduction from stakes or prizes	The house can't keep a penny of what's staked, not even for charity
Stakes up to £5 per person per game	At £1 a card, nobody buys more than five cards for one game
All stakes returned as prizes	£40 in, £40 out. You can add prizes on top
£2,000 in any seven days	Stakes or prizes over that is "high turnover bingo". You must tell the Commission, and a second time within a year needs a bingo operating licence
Not linked to another premises	One pub, one game. No joint jackpots with the pub down the road or another site in a group
No under-18s	Adults only, in a part of the pub you can supervise, photo ID if in doubt
Paid in cash before the game	The code says payments for the gaming should be in cash before it starts, with no credit
Rules and limits displayed	The rules of the game shown or available to players, and players told the stake limits
The DPS is responsible	In England and Wales the designated premises supervisor owns compliance

Games can only run while you can sell alcohol under your premises licence, according to Poppleston Allen's guidance for pubs. So bingo before opening time is out.

The three traps

The "bingo and a curry" ticket. It's the most common idea and it's a participation fee. A single price that gets you food, a drink and a bingo card is charging to play, and Poppleston Allen's guidance gives that exact example as not allowed. The fix is easy. Sell the curry. Keep the bingo free or stake-only, paid separately, all back as prizes. The Commission's page goes further: if you charge admission for a night with other entertainment on, people must be able to play bingo without paying that entry fee.

Card payments for books. The Commission's code of practice says payments for the gaming should be paid in cash before the game starts. Most pubs now take everything on card, so it's an easy one to break without thinking. Run bingo from a separate cash float, not through the till, and you also keep the bingo money out of your takings, which makes the cash-up cleaner.

Linked games. Section 279 says a game on one set of premises can't be linked to a game on another. That rules out a shared jackpot across a few local pubs, and it's worth remembering before you sign up to any app or online game that pools players from more than one venue. Inside your own four walls, phones, paper or a board on the telly are all fine. Across two pubs, it isn't exempt gaming any more.

Can you run free bingo with a prize from the pub?

Yes. Poppleston Allen's guidance for pubs says there's no limit on the value of prizes for each game and you can add prizes in excess of the stakes received. So free-to-play bingo with a bar tab for a full house is fine, and so is £1 a card with a bottle of something added to the pot. The £2,000 a week limit still counts prizes, so a big weekly jackpot can push you over it on its own.

A prize also costs you less than its face value. A £20 bar tab is 3.7 pints at £5.34. Each one costs you £2.00 in stock once you take off VAT and the £2.45 gross profit, so the tab costs about £7.50. In England and Wales you can give alcohol as a prize. In Scotland you can't, because the licensing conditions there ban promotions with alcohol as a prize, which I covered in the match day guide. Use a food voucher or a meal for two north of the border.

Does a bingo night pay?

Here's a rough sum, mine, not a real pub. A Thursday free bingo night with an extra member of staff for three hours and a £20 bar tab as the prize:

What a free bingo night costs, and the extra pints that cover it (my worked example)

Cost	Amount
Extra staff, 3 hours at £12.71	£38.13
£20 bar tab prize, at stock cost	£7.50
Total	£45.63
Extra pints to cover it, at £2.45 gross profit each	19

19 extra pints is about ten people who wouldn't otherwise have come in on a Thursday, having two each. If you call it yourself and don't need the extra pair of hands, you're covering the prize with three pints. It's the same shape as my quiz night sums, and the same rule decides it: does it bring in people who weren't coming, or just give your regulars something to do with the drink they'd have bought anyway? Only the first pays.

If you'd rather run stake bingo, the sum's the same plus a pot that goes straight back out. 30 players at £1 a card, three games, is £90 staked and £90 paid out. That's £90 a week towards your £2,000, nowhere near it.

How to run it on the night

• Pick 90-ball. It's the British pub game, the one people know the calls for. 75-ball is the American version.
• Print the rules. One sheet on the board: free or £1 a card, five cards max per game, adults only, all stakes paid back as prizes, what wins a line and a full house. That covers the code's display requirement.
• Keep a cash float and a two-line log. Each night write down total staked and total paid out, and keep a running seven-day total. It takes ten seconds, and it's your evidence if anyone ever asks how you know you're under £2,000.
• Put the board on the telly. A number board on the screen lets the back of the room keep up, cuts the "what was that?" shouts, and helps the people who can't hear the caller over the bar. If you've got the screens anyway, use them.
• Call slowly, and say the number twice. "On its own, number nine, doctor's orders, nine." The calls are half the fun and the reason people come.
• Check the claim against the board out loud. Every time, even when it's obviously right. It's what stops the arguments.

Music bingo, where you play the songs instead of calling numbers, is a game of chance with prizes too, so I'd run it to the same rules. It also means playing recorded music, so check your music licence covers it. My music licence guide has the 2026 TheMusicLicence costs.

The calls, 1 to 90

Here are the traditional calls, the clean ones. Number ten changes with whoever's Prime Minister, so it's Burnham's den at the time of writing. Print it for whoever's calling, or put it on the back of the rules sheet.

The traditional bingo calls, 1 to 90 (the clean versions, free to print)

No.	Call	No.	Call	No.	Call
1	Kelly's eye	2	One little duck	3	Cup of tea
4	Knock at the door	5	Man alive	6	Half a dozen
7	Lucky seven	8	Garden gate	9	Doctor's orders
10	Burnham's den	11	Legs eleven	12	One dozen
13	Unlucky for some	14	Valentine's Day	15	Young and keen
16	Sweet sixteen	17	Dancing queen	18	Coming of age
19	Goodbye teens	20	One score	21	Key of the door
22	Two little ducks	23	Thee and me	24	Two dozen
25	Duck and dive	26	Pick and mix	27	Gateway to heaven
28	In a state	29	Rise and shine	30	Dirty Gertie
31	Get up and run	32	Buckle my shoe	33	All the threes
34	Ask for more	35	Jump and jive	36	Three dozen
37	More than eleven	38	Christmas cake	39	Steps
40	Naughty forty	41	Time for fun	42	Winnie the Pooh
43	Down on your knees	44	Droopy drawers	45	Halfway there
46	Up to tricks	47	Four and seven	48	Four dozen
49	PC	50	Half a century	51	Tweak of the thumb
52	Deck of cards	53	Stuck in the tree	54	Clean the floor
55	Snakes alive	56	Was she worth it?	57	Heinz varieties
58	Make them wait	59	Brighton line	60	Five dozen
61	Baker's bun	62	Tickety-boo	63	Tickle me
64	Red raw	65	Old age pension	66	Clickety click
67	Stairway to heaven	68	Saving grace	69	Either way up
70	Three score and ten	71	Bang on the drum	72	Six dozen
73	Queen bee	74	Hit the floor	75	Strive and strive
76	Trombones	77	Sunset strip	78	Heaven's gate
79	One more time	80	Eight and blank	81	Stop and run
82	Straight on through	83	Time for tea	84	Seven dozen
85	Staying alive	86	Between the sticks	87	Torquay in Devon
88	Two fat ladies	89	Nearly there	90	Top of the shop

One idea worth trying

Build the bar break into the game. Most callers run the line and the full house back to back, and the bar sits idle while everyone's heads are down. Pay out the line, then call a ten-minute break before the full house: "get your drinks in, eyes down again at quarter past." Three games a night gives you three breaks, and that's where most of the 19 pints come from. It costs nothing, and players like it because nobody wants to queue mid-game and miss a number.

My take

Bingo's the cheapest entertainment night a pub can run, and the law is friendlier than people fear, as long as you remember the house can't make a penny on the game. Keep it free or stake-only, take cash for it, keep it in your own building, and write the totals down. The profit's at the bar, and on a wet Thursday in January, 19 pints is a good night.

Common questions

Do you need a licence to run bingo in a pub?

No, as long as it's exempt gaming: no participation fee, no cut from stakes or prizes, stakes up to £5 a person a game, all stakes returned as prizes, not linked to another venue, no under-18s, and under £2,000 in stakes or prizes in any seven days.

Can a pub charge an entry fee for bingo?

No. Pubs can't charge a participation or admission fee for bingo. A single ticket that includes food and a bingo card counts as a participation fee. Sell the food separately and keep the bingo free or stake-only.

What is the £2,000 bingo limit for pubs?

If the bingo played in any seven days goes over £2,000 in stakes or prizes, it's high turnover bingo. You must tell the Gambling Commission, and if it happens again within a year you need a bingo operating licence.

Can a pub add its own prizes to bingo?

Yes. Licensing solicitors Poppleston Allen say there's no limit on prizes per game and you can add prizes over the stakes received. Prizes still count towards the £2,000 a week limit. In Scotland, alcohol can't be offered as a prize.

Can I take card payments for pub bingo?

The Gambling Commission's code of practice says payments for the gaming should be in cash before the game starts, with no credit. Run bingo from a separate cash float rather than through the till.

What are the bingo calls from 1 to 90?

The traditional calls run from Kelly's eye for 1 and one little duck for 2, through legs eleven, two little ducks for 22 and clickety click for 66, to two fat ladies for 88 and top of the shop for 90. The full list is in the table above.