History Of Bingo

Bingo is a game practically everyone has heard of, and most people have played at some time. Although bingo in its present form was developed in the 1920's and 1930's, bingo has a history that dates back thousands of years.

Bingo, the game keno, and lotteries are all based on drawing numbers (or lots) for a prize. Sometime between 205 BC and 187 BC, a lottery similar to keno was being played in China. We know this because keno slips dating back to the Han Dynasty have been recovered.

Other lotteries were probably being played for hundreds (and maybe thousands) of years prior to this and there is evidence that there were European lotteries sometime before 100 BC (during the Roman Empire).

Early lottery winners were rewarded with prizes rather than money, but about five hundred years ago (in 1530), the Italian Lotto (which is an Italian term for lottery) began. It was the first money lottery that was held in Europe.

The lotto proved to be very popular in Italy, and merchants and sailors from other countries learned of the lotto when they travelled to Italy. These same merchants and sailors spread the game to many areas of the world after leaving Italy. The game played then was simpler than today's version of bingo, but it was similar.

In France during the 18th century, idle and wealthy aristocrats enjoyed playing a game that was quite similar to the game of bingo, as we play it now. The cards had three horizontal and nine vertical rows. A caller was appointed who called out numbers and players had to cover numbers called aloud.

From France, the bingo-like games passed to Germany where they were accepted as an educational tool for children. Numbers were replaced with animals and historical events in order to help students remember. But the actual game we know as bingo, had its birth place in United States.

During the 1920's, a game called beano was being played in the United States. Beano was a game (similar to bingo) that was played in carnivals. It was called beano because beans were used to cover the numbers on the cards.

In December 1929, Edwin S. Lowe (a toy salesman) encountered the game beano while in Georgia. He noted the popularity of beano and its money making potential. He developed his own form of beano and refined it while playing with his friends. It was an instant hit.

The history of bingo notes that it was when playing this game that one of Lowe's nervous friends shouted 'bingo' instead of 'beano' on completing the game. As everyone liked this funny sounding name, they decided to call and market the game by its new name.

The first few bingo sets created by Lowe came in a small size with 12 cards and a large size with 24 cards. unique cards and number tokens. These cards only had numbers and it proved to be difficult for some players to find and mark the number called on their card.

Soon after the game went on the market, a priest from a church in Pennsylvania used bingo to raise funds for his church. It was a good source of revenue but because of the limited number of combinations (12 or 24 depending on which set was being used), there were many winners when a large group of people played.

Lowe overcame the problem of finding and marking numbers by adding the words B-I-N-G-O to the top of the cards. This made the game easier to play and it also made it possible to create millions of unique bingo cards.

He hired a mathematics professor named Carl Leffler and got him to produce 6,000 new bingo cards with unique combinations of numbers. After this, bingo became popular in clubs and churches all over the country. Bingo reached its peak in popularity in the mid 1970's and has remained popular ever since. It is still played in thousands of bingo halls and churches.

Because of its popularity, bingo was one of the first games to be played on the internet. Today, a person wishing to play bingo online can choose from various places including websites that are strictly bingo related and some online casinos.