Graziano Montanaro

Tombola Calculator

Tombola is a traditional Italian board game, very popular during the Christmas holidays. This calculator helps you distribute the prize pool fairly among various prizes following the traditional progressive halving method.

How it works:

  • Tombola: The biggest prize, minimum 6 cartelle (covers the tombolone's buy-in)
  • Cinquina: Five numbers in the same row
  • Quaterna: Four numbers in the same row
  • Terna: Three numbers in the same row
  • Ambo: Two numbers in the same row, minimum 1 cartella (covers the player's buy-in)

A cartella is the playing card. The tombolone (number caller) traditionally must buy 6 cartelle.

Tombola Prize Calculator

Enter the total prize pool and automatically calculate prize distribution.

The cost of one playing card. Used to ensure fair minimum prizes.

Important Notes

Smart Distribution: When you set a cartella price, the calculator requires a minimum prize pool to cover 7 cartelle (6 for tombolone + 1 for at least one player). It ensures Ambo winners recover at least their entry cost and Tombola winners cover the tombolone's buy-in. The remaining prize pool is distributed with weighted proportions ensuring each prize is progressively larger.

Divisibility: All prizes are rounded to multiples of 20 cents to ensure they can be evenly divided between two winners (a common case in Tombola games). This ensures easy distribution with real coins (10, 20, 50 cents, 1 and 2 euros).

Any remainder is distributed proportionally among all prizes, maintaining the exact total of the initial prize pool.