← All games

TAMBOLA.

Printing the tickets…

How to play Tambola (Housie)

  1. One person is the caller; everyone else gets a real three-by-nine ticket on their own phone. There is no bag of tokens — the app draws the numbers.
  2. The caller taps Call next number and reads it out. Any number on your ticket that has been called is outlined in gold; tap it to mark it. There is also Mark everything called if you have fallen behind.
  3. Claim a prize and the app checks it against the numbers actually called, not against what you tapped — so marking a number you did not hear will not win you anything.
  4. Six prizes: Early Five, the three lines, Four Corners and Full House. Each goes once, to whoever claims it first.

An example

The caller taps Call next number and the app draws 47. It is on your ticket, so it lights up gold; you tap it to mark it. Two calls later your top row is complete, so you tap Top Line. The app checks all five of those numbers against what has genuinely been called — not against what you have tapped — and awards it. Claim too early and it tells you so, quietly, and nothing is lost. That is the argument this game usually has, settled before it starts.

2–30 players · about 20–40 minutes · suggested from age 6 · free, no sign-up, plays in any browser.