Numbers: The Lucky, The Unlucky and The Just Plain Weird

As we all know, bingo is a game that revolves around numbers. However, numbers can mean very different things to very different people, whether because of culture, life experiences or personal taste.

WDW Bingo has collected the most notorious of these numeral meanings for your amusement.

Remember, in a game of chance like bingo, all numbers have the exact same weighting, despite their cultural significance.

0 – A perfect circle, zero often represents eternity as well as nothingness. To the famous mathematician Pythagoras, it was the perfect form which contains all and from which all is created.

1 – First place. To be number one is to be the best. Simple.

2 – Traditionally in gambling the number two results in snake eyes; the worst possible result, a complete lack of success. However, Chinese culture takes on a slightly brighter approach, believing two represents the dual concept of Yin & Yang – perfect harmony.

3 – Remember, good things come in threes! And that’s not to mention all the biblical implications in the number three due to the ‘Holy Trinity’.

4 – This means death. No, seriously, look it up – the word four in Chinese is pronounced almost exactly the same as the word death. Needless to say, the results can be pretty morbid. Many Chinese people avoid even speaking the word “four” out loud, due to fearful superstition and its reputation for bad luck.

5 – Synonymous with the iconic pentagram symbol, five can therefore be considered a mystical number. Originally,

pentagrams were drawn as a protective charm and source of magic, but slowly over the years, the symbol has been twisted to represent the devil and other evil forces.

6 – The winning throw at dice, lucky number six is a gambler’s dream. It can also refer to beginnings when you consider god created the world in 6 days.

7 – Lucky sevens can often be seen on a slot machine reel, resulting in some big jackpots. Ironically, it also can refer to the seven deadly sins, one of which covers gambling (Greed).

11 – Legs. Legs. Really? It looks like bingo callers traditionally use ‘legs’ to refer to number eleven, although this was first inherited from casino craps announcers.

13 – Unlucky, especially on a Friday, thirteen has had a bad rap ever since thirteen men were depicted in Christ’s fateful Last Supper. It’s pretty much pegged as the number of doom and gloom thanks to Judas.

17 – Some Italians are superstitious about Friday the 17th because rearranging the Roman numeral XVII can create the word “VIXI”—translated from Latin to mean “my life is over.”

21 – Although it doesn’t mean anything per say, twenty-one is still a major landmark in human life; the age of adulthood.

39 – In Afghanistan, the number 39 translates into morda-gow which literally means ‘dead cow’, but is also slang for a seller of prostitutes—a pimp. Therefore, when Afghans see a car with number 39 on the license plate, they walk the other way.

69 – You’re not going to make us explain this one are you? Everyone laughs when it comes up for a reason. Let’s just say that reason starts with ‘S’ and ends in ‘X’.

88 – Also known as ‘Two Fat Ladies’ and ‘Wibbly Wobbly’, eight is the big eater’s number, probably because of its hourglass figure!