Tombola is the number game Italian families play at Christmas. Between Christmas Eve and Epiphany on January 6, the table is cleared after dinner, someone fetches the bag of numbers, and grandparents, parents and children each take a cartella and a handful of dried beans. It is a close relative of 90-ball bingo, but the prizes come in five steps and the person drawing the numbers has a joke for almost every one. This guide explains what tombola is, where it comes from, how to play and how to set up a game this Christmas.
What Is Tombola?
Tombola is played with the numbers 1 to 90. Each player holds one or more cartelle: cards with three rows and nine columns, fifteen numbers in all, five on each row. One person draws the numbers one at a time from a bag or basket, calls them out and places them on the tabellone, a board that shows all ninety numbers. The players cover every number they hold.
Most bingo games pay out for a line or a full card. Tombola has a ladder of five prizes in every round, so plenty of people at the table win something, and even the youngest players stay interested until the end.
Where Tombola Comes From
Tombola is most closely tied to Naples. A popular story says it began there in the 18th century, when the public lotto was suspended over the Christmas holidays and families started drawing the numbers at home instead. Whatever its exact origin, the game spread across Italy and became as much a part of Christmas as the nativity scene and panettone.
How to Play Tombola
- Hand out the cartelle. Each player takes one or more. Traditionally a cartella costs a few coins, and the pot is shared between the prizes.
- Choose who draws. The caller keeps the tabellone and draws the numbers from a basket or bag (in Naples, the panariello).
- Cover the numbers. Players mark each number they hold with a dried bean, a lentil, a piece of mandarin peel or a pen.
- Call the prizes. The first player with two numbers on the same row calls "Ambo!", and the game goes on for terno, quaterna, cinquina and finally tombola.
- Check every win. The caller checks each claim against the tabellone before the next number is drawn.
The Prizes: From Ambo to Tombola
- Ambo: two numbers on the same row
- Terno: three numbers on the same row
- Quaterna: four numbers on the same row
- Cinquina: all five numbers on a row
- Tombola: all fifteen numbers on the cartella
Each prize is won once per round, in that order, so a single round can have five different winners. The tombola pays the most and the ambo the least.
The Smorfia: Numbers With Names
In a Neapolitan tombola, numbers are rarely called plainly. The caller uses the smorfia, the Neapolitan book of dreams that gives every number from 1 to 90 a meaning: 1 is Italy, 25 is Christmas, 33 is the age of Christ and 90 is fear, while 77 is usually called "women's legs" for the shape of the two sevens. Half the fun is the commentary, and a good caller keeps the table laughing between the numbers.
Tombola and Its Cousins
The tombola cartella has the same shape as the ticket used in British 90-ball bingo, Indian tambola (housie), Turkish tombala, French loto and Russian lotto: three rows, nine columns, fifteen numbers. What changes from country to country is the name, the prizes and the nicknames for the numbers. If you know one of them, you can sit down at an Italian table and play.
How to Play Tombola This Christmas
You do not need a boxed set. Print 90-ball tickets: each sheet holds six tickets, with every number from 1 to 90 exactly once, the same shape as a series of six cartelle. Free PDFs hold up to 240 tickets with a small bingosheets.net line under the grid, and you can choose a Christmas background.
For the numbers, open the free 90-ball bingo caller on a laptop or TV. It draws every number once, reads it aloud and lights it up on a board like a tabellone, and it keeps working offline once the page is open. Keep the beans for marking.
For the rules of 90-ball bingo and its variants, see our guide on how to play 90-ball bingo.
Six tickets on one sheet hold every number from 1 to 90 once, like a series of six tombola cartelle.