Bingo!

The other night, I had a dream about the game of Bingo (I don't know why. Don't judge me). But it caused me to think about the game of Bingo, maybe more than I ever have in my entire life, and it caused me to wonder aloud (via Twitter) why the Bingo caller always says the letter and the number.
If you've never played the game of Bingo before, first of all, welcome to our planet. Secondly, Bingo is a game of chance played with up to 75 randomly drawn numbers which players match against numbers that have been pre-printed on 5x5 matrices (or cards). But here's the thing that caused me to wonder; while the drawing of numbers is random, the layout on the cards (or matrices) is not, in that numbers 1-15 are always under the letter B (the first column to the left), 16-30 are always under the letter I (the second column), and so on. Not in sequential order of course, but always in the same columns. The number 75 will never appear under the letter B. This makes the numbers very easy to find and many players are able to play several cards simultaneously. So why is it necessary to call out the letter before reading the number if the number is always going to be found in the column under the same letter every single time? It just seems like they're unnecessarily slowing the furious slam-bang, rock 'em-sock 'em pace of Bingo, the Roller Derby of all number matching games.
As it turns out, a friend has a brother who manages a Bingo hall (I don't know why. Don't judge her or her brother) had an answer for me. Quote: "They do it for the stupid people."
That's right folks. The next time you're stuck in a long line at the post office or gas station, when the beach is too crowded to enjoy, when the coffee runs out before you could get some, take a look around and realize that many of the people around you may be too stupid to find a number between 1 and 75 that can only be found within a certain five out of 24 places (remember, there's a free spot right in the middle) without being told which five places those are, every single time.

BINGO TRIVIA:

• Bingo was invented in 1934. Insert old people joke here.
• There are about 5.52*1026, (exactly 155 × 145 × 135 × 125 × 114) possible arrangements of the numbers on a bingo card. Even though the numbers are always, ALWAYS, in the same friggin' columns (see above).
• Bingo is often used as an instructional tool in American primary schools and in teaching English as a foreign language in many countries.
• Apparently, if you have the number 3 (or B 3 for the stupids), and it gets called, you automatically win (providing you hear it called):