The History of Bingo

The history of bingo spans to almost five hundred glorious years since its instigation in the early 16th century. Ever since then there has been no looking back. Here is how the beguiling game evolved over the years.

Origin of Bingo and its journey

Having dominated almost everyone’s heart till now, this enthralling game of bingo first appeared in Italy in the form of a simple lottery game known as 'Lo Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia'. The state-run lottery game became an instant hit with the people residing in Italy and merchants from all over the Europe who frequented the Italian markets for trade. Soon everyone including the affluent families and wealthy people was lured by this fascinating game. Consequently, Northern Italy, also the hub of trading industry rapidly evolved as the focus of lotto too.

Bingo prospered and changed the fortunes of many people. Bingo or lotto first made its presence felt when the visiting trade merchants introduced this game to people of their country and thus began the lottery revolution in Europe.

In the late 18th century, France was introduced with this intriguing game. However, only the nobility and landed gentry participated in their own version of lottery. Their bingo card was divided in 3 rows and 9 columns with numbers from 1 to 90 written on them. Each card had different combination of numbers. This elongated version of modern bingo was simply called “Le Lotto” by the French.

The game was remodelled to an educational tool in Germany. Animals and historical events replaced the numbers and thus bingo helped children learn things in an enjoyable manner.

Evolution of the modern Bingo

Bingo reached the shores of America with migrants from different countries. It became popular with the name of “Beano” and was a regular feature of fairs and carnivals. The term beano came into existence due to the way the game was played, i.e. covering the numbers with beans.

In 1930 Edwin Lowe, a travelling toy salesperson happened to visit a carnival in Atlanta, Georgia. There he witnessed the game of beano being played by people. He could not help but wonder over the intensity with which people were involved with the game. Thus, he immediately decided to fabricate his own version of the game, which we know as the modern day bingo.

Lowe invited some friends to his place to try out his version of beano. To his amazement, everyone loved the game so much, that in the moment of excitement one of his friends yelled “Bingo” instead of beano. Consequently, the game was coined as bingo from that date.

Lowe contacted a maths professor at Columbian university, Carl Leffler, to help him generate unique cards as the cards created earlier by Lowe were producing multiple winners. Carl Leffler completed the Herculean task of creating 6000 different bingo cards that ensured a single winner each time the game was played. Bingo, then known as “Lowe’s Bingo” tasted success instantly and people paid Lowe $1 per year to market their game as bingo.

Bingo peaked in the 1970’s when the Gaming board came into existence in 1968. The gaming act allowed players to play with cash prizes and counters. As a result, bingo became extremely popular with the folks, and special bingo halls had to be set up at all the major towns of U.K. and other countries.

A different facet of the modern day Bingo

With technological advancement and the ever-increasing popularity, online bingo came into existence in the mid 1990’s. People got a chance to savour their favourite game at the click of the button and it gave them the liberty to play the game any time of the day.

The remarkable journey of bingo has already changed many fortunes and is now on its way to change many more.