History Of Bingo
The roots of modern – day bingo can be traced as far as the 16th Century in Italy, where the lottery game “Lo Giuoco del Lotto dItalia” was founded. This extremely famous game was brought to North America in the latter part of the 1920s under the name ‘Beano’. A toy salesperson in New York was the ‘culprit’ responsible for giving the game the name we use today and making it popular all over the country.
During the latter 18th century, the game had found its way into France. History reveals that the game, known to the French then as ‘Le Lotto’ was a hit among the higher echelons of the French society. They generally played it during parties and other such gatherings.
Le Lotto
Le Lotto was played using cards that had 3 rows and 9 columns. Each row consisted of 10 numbers, while each column has 5 number and 4 ‘Free’ boxes. Each player was given a different lotto card in which he/she marked the relevant numbers. The first person who was able to mark all numbers on a row won.
With the 19th century, Le Lotto gained popularity across Europe and became a popular didactic children’s game. During the 1850s, a number of educational lotto games penetrated the German toy market. The purpose of these games was to teach children to spell words and to perform mathematical operations.
Early 20th Century
As the 1920s came, a game fairly similar to the lotto game, under the name of ‘Beano’, gained popularity in country fairs in the country. Beans were placed on the numbers called. The first player to complete a row would shout out ‘BEANO’! This name stuck until a particular night in the December of 1929, when Edwin S. Lowe, a NY toy shop owner, went to a country fair in Georgia.
As he went back to NY, Lowe got hold of all the equipment needed for a game of Beano. He was hosting games of beano in his home in NY. During one particular game, a person who covered a full row got extremely excited and stuttered ‘BINGO’ rather than ‘BEANO’. Having heard the excited girl, Lowe’s thoughts went to starting a new game by the name of Bingo.
As Bingo was entering the market, a priest from Pennsylvania approached Lowe for permission to use the game for a charitable purpose. During a tryout period, the priest discovered that bingo actually made the church lose money. Because there weren’t a large number of cards available, every game ended with more than 5 winners.
Insane
In an attempt to further the game and reduce the chances of winning, Lowe went to Professor Carl Leffler, a mathematician lecturing at the Columbia University. Lowe got him to make a larger number of cards, each of which has a unique set of numbers. By 1930, Lowe got his 6000 cards and Professor Leffler nearly went insane!
The popularity of bingo as a means of raising funds kept increasing. Within 5 years, nearly 10000 bingo games were played in North America every week. Lowe’s company grew bigger and started employing several thousands of workers who manned 60 presses for each and every hour every day. Bingo has now become one of the most famous chance games worldwide. It can be found in churches, schools, casinos and bingo halls in the UK, US, Australia and many other countries in the world.