Guide
Tombola rules explained: cards, sestine and prizes
The rules of tombola fit on half a page, but the arguments always start in the same three places. This covers both.
How a card is built
A tombola card — a cartella — is a grid of 3 rows by 9 columns. Only 15 of the 27 cells hold a number: exactly five per row, with the other twelve left blank. The columns are not decoration; each one holds a decade:
- first column: 1 to 9;
- middle columns: 10–19, 20–29, and so on up to 70–79;
- last column: 80 to 90 (eleven numbers, the busiest one).
Within a column the numbers always run in ascending order top to bottom, and no column ever holds more than three. That is why a real card reads quickly: you already know which part of it to search when a number is called.
What a sestina is, and why it matters
Cards are not made one at a time. They are made in groups of six, called sestine, and the six cards of a sestina together contain every number from 1 to 90 exactly once. Ninety numbers across 6 × 15 cells: the arithmetic is exact.
The practical consequence is that in a complete sestina every number drawn lands on one card and one card only. Hand the six cards to six different people and exactly one person reacts to each draw. And if you take several cards from the same sestina, you can never be dealt the same number twice — which is why Tombolino deals each player cards from a fresh sestina.
The draw and the board
The caller draws one number at a time from 1 to 90, without replacement, and announces it. The board — the grid of all 90 numbers, filling in as the game goes — exists so that anyone who missed a call can check whether a number has already been drawn. It is not an accessory; it is the only shared record of the game.
Online the basket is a server-side random draw and the board updates itself on every device. The full draw history stays available in order too, so someone who joins halfway can reconstruct everything without asking anyone.
The prizes, in order
Prizes are awarded in ascending order, and each one is won only once per game:
- Ambo — two numbers on the same row of the same card.
- Terna — three on the same row.
- Quaterna — four on the same row.
- Cinquina — five, that is a complete row.
- Tombola — all fifteen numbers on one card.
The part people get wrong: the first four prizes count along a single row. Two numbers on different rows are not an ambo, however close together they look.
The three cases that cause arguments
One draw, two prizes
If the ambo has not been won yet and someone completes three in a row, that player wins the ambo and the terna at the same moment. This is correct: prizes are never skipped or held over — every tier that is satisfied at that instant is awarded.
Two people at once
If two players complete the same prize on the same draw, they are joint winners. There is no finishing order to settle: there was one draw, and it served them both.
Who wins if nobody notices
In paper tombola the prize goes to whoever claims it first, and if nobody is watching their card the prize simply is not awarded and play continues. That rule causes more disputes than any other — and it is the one real difference online, where wins are computed by comparing the drawn numbers against every card in play. Nobody has to claim anything, and being distracted costs you nothing.
House variations
Plenty of families and offices play with their own additions: a second full card, a consolation prize for the player who has marked nothing at all, a split pot. They are all legitimate, but leave them out when the group is playing together for the first time — every extra rule is a rule you have to explain.
How this maps onto the app
On Tombolino the rules above are applied literally: cards dealt in sestine, five numbers per row, prizes awarded in order and detected by the server across all cards, joint winners when they happen. Anyone joining after the start competes from the draw they joined on, and that draw number stays next to their name. If you prefer the American 75-ball format with B-I-N-G-O columns, the differences are in tombola 90 vs bingo 75.