LaTeX and python-powered randomized bingo cards with custom cells. Takes a user-supplied list of phrases and randomly assigns them to a user-specified number of bingo cards, using LaTeX. A python script creates a complete checklist for all possible bingo card cells. This project is ideal for televised political events like State of the Union or presidential [or primary] debates. New for 2022: also ideal for a Super Bowl party.

Although I made some changes to the LaTeX code, the bulk of the code -- and all of the hard stuff -- was taken from tex.stackexchange.com.

The list of phrases (and don't make any individual phrase very long) needs to be semicolon-separated text, with a small bit of LaTeX encompassing the list. You can make the list about anything; I have added a vice-presidential list too, but the relevant words will always change.

\myItems{Believe me;
Make America Great Again;
Build a Wall;
Benghazi;
Crooked Hillary;
% [et cetera]
% note comments are allowed, as is whitespace
We don't \emph{win} anymore
}

❗ Important: the list of items must not include a final semicolon. LaTeX interprets a final semicolon to mean "the next entry is a blank", and you will end up with randomly empty cells on the bingo cards. The list should terminate only with a close-brace, though the brace can be on a new line.

The LaTeX file, when run, will take the list, pick 24 at random (the "Free Space" is humorously listed as "Candidate Talks Past Allotted Time", as though that could ever not happen), and assign them to a standard 5 x 5 bingo card. This random process is nice because it avoids "sets" of cards all providing Bingo at the same time.

The LaTeX file includes a for-loop to create some number (initially set at 50) of PDF cards.

I've gotten help over the years from a few people, including the above-mentioned StackExchange thread, my spouse, and in 2022, from my Germanic friend Robin, who might prefer that I leave him out of this, but he is a LaTeX wizard, and I know it.

The bingo cards also include a small label below the bingo grid, so customize the \biglabel macro to suit your event.

% make a nice identifier for the card (in case, say, there is more than one
% presidential debate, etc.)
\newcommand{\biglabel}{\vspace{0.2in}\begin{center}
\begin{LARGE}
Some Bingo Event

State of the Union

01 January 1900

\end{LARGE}
\end{center}
}

If you want to use an arbitrary "Free Space" label, you can change the TikZ code:

\node [scale=1.2] at ($(\col,-\row)-(0.5,0.3)$) {Something};
\node [scale=1.2] at ($(\col,-\row)-(0.5,0.5)$) {Else};
\node [scale=1.2] at ($(\col,-\row)-(0.5,0.7)$) {Entirely};

And note there is a \renewcommand or two you can uncomment for either a totally generic "Free Space" square, or a blindingly obvious topic/comment.

For those wholly new to TikZ, the second number of the pair is a y-coordinate for the line, and a line space of 0.2 is about right. If you trim the cell to two lines, you will want to change the y-values to be more centered.

The python script parses the entire list and provides a longtable checklist for the moderator to use when evaluating a given event. The bingochecklist.tex file reads the output of the python script, which is a file called checklist1.tex.

So, from a terminal on your machine of choice, run

python makechecklist.py

And if you've got all the files where they are supposed to be, it will form up the guts of the checklist. Next, compile bingochecklist.tex a few times and you'll be good to go. You need to compile the TeX file at least twice because it uses longtable, and column widths are determined dynamically over the course of a few LaTeX compiles.

Jesse Hamner, 2016-2022. 🚀