Bingo has survived for many years as a popular game. In fact, bingo is currently used extensively as a fundraising activity for various sponsoring organizations, such as churches or other charitable organizations.
Bingo is played utilizing a game card having numbered squares, which numbers may be called during the course of a game. Any individual might play, for example, 16 or more cards at one time. As numbers are called the squares are marked using an ink marker or marking chips. An ink marker may only be utilized with disposable bingo cards, and renders any card non-useable upon completion of a game as the ink marks cannot be removed. This results in the necessity of having a substantial number of bingo cards available, resulting in undue expense.
In instances where marking chips are utilized, the markers may be moved if the card, or table upon which it rests, is jostled. A problem results in attempting to replace the markers on the proper squares. Additionally, any such replacement takes valuable time which might result in an otherwise winning card going unnoticed.
One proposed solution to the above problem is described in Gadd U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,830 relating to a bingo game card holder. The holder includes a base for holding a plurality of cards, and a light transmissive cover for covering the cards. An erasable marker is used to mark the cover to identify called numbers appearing on the card. However, such a construction results in the necessity of having to clean off the cover to erase the markings after each game. Cleaning materials must be available to accomplish this task. Additionally, it is believed that over time such a cover will become dirty and scratched presenting further problems.
The present invention is intended to overcome these and other problems associated with the play of games such as bingo.