Bingo's Origins in Italy
Most gambling historians agree that Bingo began as an Italian lottery called "Lo Giuoco del Lotto D'Italia". The game appears in the record in the late Renaissance Italy around 1530. It is said to have evolved from a game called Lotto. which in Italian means “fate or destiny”. It was first played during a time when a corrupt election needed a new way to choose a leader. Numbers would be chosen randomly and whoever held that number would become the new leader purely by fate.
The Game Spreads Across Europe
Bingo then moved into France where it became known as "Le Lotto". Bingo is still played in France every Saturday in a form that is very similar to the Bingo that we know today. It is played with tokens, a playing card and live called numbers.
In the 1800s Bingo became very popular in Europe. The most popular form of Bingo being played involved having to divide the card into 100 squares with nine vertical rows and three horizontal rows. The three horizontal rows each contained five squares with numbers in them and four blank ones.
The numbers that were going to be called were printed on wooden chips and tossed into a bag. The caller would then have to reach inside the bag and pick a wooden chip. The object of the game was to be the first to completely cover one of the three horizontal rows with the wooden chips. The blank squares on these cards were known as free squares which will be found in the bingo we know and love today.
The Germans also played a version of the game in the 1800s, but they used it as a child's game to help students learn math, spelling and history.
Bingo Immigrates to America
Beano became very popular in American carnivals by 1929. Back in the day it was played with dried beans, a rubber number stamp and cardboard, and instead of shouting “Bingo!” winning players shouted “Beano!”. The game is suspected to have first appeared in Georgia, but was soon popular throughout the American Midwest.
The very popular Bingo game today was first introduced by a New York toy salesman, Edward Lowe who began licensing bingo cards in the 1930's, making it easy for operators to run these games. He renamed it "Bingo" instead of "Beano" after he overheard someone accidentally shout bingo! The license to his trademark "bingo" game was $1 a year, which later proved to be a clever marketing ploy to introduce Lowe's name into the marketplace. Lowe then hired a Columbia University math professor, Carl Leffler, to help him increase the number of combinations in bingo cards. By 1930, Leffler had invented 6,000 different bingo cards.
By the 1940's bingo games had spread all over the United States and Canada. Bingo was played weekly by thousands of people especially in churches and civic gathering places.
Modern Bingo
Today bingo games have many different formats and variations, and can be played online as well. Bingo is also the basis for online games sold through licensed lotteries where tickets are sold similar to the Lotto. The player will get a receipt with their unique numbers on it, similar to a bingo card. Draws took place daily or weekly and was normally broadcasted on TV where the prizes were much higher and typically more difficult to win.
Another form of bingo is also frequently sold as a scratch and win type card game. The numbers are pre-drawn for each card and hidden until the card is scratched. In lotteries with online networks, the price is electronically confirmed to avoid fraud.
It was once reported that for every one person that goes to a casino, ten go to a bingo hall. Bingo is even bigger Online possibly because it is an easy game to play and Progressive Jackpots in an Online game are much larger than in a Bingo hall. |
