The amazing history of bingo Every story has a beginning and a history. The history of bingo is a very interesting one, which begins back in Italy. The current version of bingo that is played today is actually an old game that started back in Italy that had the name of Lo Giuoco del Lotto d’Italia. The game was held in the form of a lottery by the state, which helped them raise funds and money for their government. The game has been held without pause every week since its inception in 1530 and currently contributes over 75 million dollars every year to the Italian government! The game also had popularity in France where it went by Le Lotto. Back in 1778 bingo was being played on a card that had 3 horizontal and 9 vertical rows. Although not identical to the bingo we know today it had some similarities. Players were allowed to only use one card at a time, while a reader would draw wooden balls containing the bingo numbers. The first player that got an entire horizontal row covered won the game. Germany also had their own version; they however used it for educational purposes. The German version was used to teach children mathematics, more specifically their multiplication tables. They also had different version of the game for different school subjects and classes, such as a „spelling bingo,â€&#x;
„animal bingo,‟ and „historical bingo.‟ Who knows, maybe bingo is the propellant that helped the Germans gain such a notable name in the fields of science and engineering! The game also became popular over in the good ole‟ USA. Back in 1929 a man by the name of Edwin S. Lowe was travelling cross country when he happened to stumble across a county fair. Without much else to do he decided to stop and have a look around and eventually came across a tent with a large crowd. The crowd was playing a game using cards that had random numbers; once the numbers were called out they in turn would cover that number with a bean. When a horizontal or vertical row was completely filled a player would yell “Beano” and they‟d win. Edwin Lowe noticed that people were very attracted to this early version of bingo and that they wanted to play game after game. Upon talking to the announcer hosting the game Lowe discovered that the announcer discovered the game while travelling the countryside of Germany. He decided to try the game out in America, and integrated some of his own rules like using beans to keep track of what numbers were called. After that fateful night Lowe went back to New York City with a new idea. He invited all his friends to his apartment to try out this exciting new game. Just like back at the county fair, Lowe‟s friends were very excited and were involved with playing the game. The story goes that when one girl won she immediately stood up and was so overcome with excitement that she shouted “BINGO!”
rather than “Beano.” The name ended up sticking with Lowe, and he would later declare that it made sense that the game should be named Bingo, since the girl said it out of spontaneous excitement. So there you have it folks, a quick rundown on the history of bingo! If you‟d like to add anything else or have any questions please drop us a line in the comments section below. Take care and remember to always play responsibly! See what bingo is all about and check out www.bingohall.ag, where there‟s always an exciting tournament and competition going on! If you want more information on this topic, feel free to visit this blog!