For purposes of discussion, you may count the free square as a marked square. However, I'm looking for a basic strategy that considers the number of marks only. It's not just a matter of the number of squares covered, but how the marks are arranged and how much money is already in the marked squares. So, if an abandoned game has a card with already so-many squares covered, it has a positive expected value. When the any row, column, or diagonal is fully marked, the player wins all the money from the coins on that line. Any given square must have at least some money to count as being marked. If the player gets a coin on any of the 24 squares (the center square has a separate function), then that money is added to the corresponding square on a 5x5 bingo card on a separate screen. The way it works is there is a 5x5 game field. I've been hearing a lot of chatter about Cashman Bingo.
