I have made some research about the history of bingo, it is an exciting read, so follow along!
The origin of bingo: Europe
The roots of the bingo game we know today are back in the 1500s. Yes, bingo is an almost 500 years old game! Originally bingo was like a lottery game played in Italy and it was called by the name of “Lo Giuoco Code Loto”.
After three centuries, in the 1800s, the game appeared in France, but with some additions. The folks there were playing it with using cards, tokens and they read out the numbers too.
Historians also know of a German version of the game at this time, but Germans used the game for educational purposes. They taught the children to read, spell and kids in Germany learned mathematics with the help of bingo!
The American bingo history
Bingo appeared in the USA in the 1920s, but it was only a game played with beans, that’s why it’s name was “Beano“. The players used beans to mark their cards. They played it at trade fairs with numbered paper discs which were pulled out from a cigar box.
As the tale says an American toy-factory owner, Edwin S. Lowe saw this game at a carnival in Georgia and he liked the game so much that when he went back to New York, he started to organize Beano evenings for his friends.
The game conquered New York quickly. If the legends are true, it got the name Bingo after a fun gaming night, when someone accidentally shouted “Bingo!“ instead of “Beano”. Lowe liked this little mis-shouting, so since then the game was spreading over the states by its new name: Bingo.
With his mathematician friend, Lowe succeeded to create several random bingo cards, so nothing could stop him from the expansion. The first games were held in churches and for raising funds for charities. Soon one could see thousands of bingo games per week in the United States.
The road to online bingo
Bingo quickly became the world’s favorite game with its social and community side. People often went to bingo halls to have some fun and entertainment and to meet friends.
The online version of the game has the same age as the internet itself, and experienced its booming period in the past years. It can be because of some land-based bingo limitations (for example the smoking ban in the U.K.), the expansion of the internet-usage, the various online payment possibilities and last but not least the opportunity to meet fellow roomies around the globe any time, any day, 7/24 .
Bingo made its way from far, and I am sure it will shine in the future, too.
Inspiration I used for this article: Bingo US – Wikipedia
