Bingo History

The game of Bingo is one of the most popular games ever played. Many versions exist but all are based on the original game which was introduced as the “Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia,” in Italy in 1530.

From Italy to France…

The French Le Lotto, developed in 1778, consisted of a cardboard game card divided into three horizontal rows with either numbered or blank spaces, and nine vertical rows with five numbers each, ranging from one to ninety. No two lotto cards were the same. Ninety wooden chips were used and the caller pulled out one chip at a time. When he read out the number on the chip, the participants were required to cover that number on their card. The player who completed a horizontal line first won the game.

…to the U.S.

The game was brought to America by Edwin S. Lowe, a New York toy salesman who was making his sales calls in 1929, when he found himself at a country carnival near Jacksonville, Georgia. Sensing some excitement emanating from one of the tents, he entered the booth which was packed to the brim with enthusiastic people playing a version of a lotto game called “beano.” As the caller pulled out a wooden disc from an old cigar box and read out the number, the participants would cover the corresponding number on their cards with a bean. When a player had a row fully of numbers fully covered with the beans, he would shout out, “beano” and he was the winner of the game. Being a toy aficionado, Lowe decided to create his own version of the game and to market it. He returned to New York, devised his own tokens and cards and renamed the game “bingo” after a shouted “bingo” instead of “beano”. At about this time, a Catholic priest from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania approached Lowe about using bingo as a means of raising much needed funds for his church. Realizing that more combinations were needed in order to limit the amount of winning cards, Lowe hired a Columbia University math professor, to help him increase the number of combinations on the bingo cards. By 1930, he had invented 6,000 different cards.

Online bingo takes over

By 1934, there were thousands of games of bingo being played all over the world. Although bingo halls and church bingo games still exist, most bingo games today are played online. According to the latest statistics, the UK has an estimated 3.2 million online bingo players. Almost every household in the UK has at least one computer and together with the social interaction of the bingo chat rooms, there isn’t any wonder why online bingo has become so popular.

The history of bingo is very interesting as it tells as story of how people can influence a game and affect it’s development over time. Bingo, a game that started off in Italy in the 16 hundreds is now enjoyed by millions worldwide.