History of Bingo

One of the worlds oldest and most popular games, Bingos history is a fascinating story full of Italian style, French class, German technology and American marketing smarts. Today the game is still very much online and kicking, and is widely played by internet users for pure enjoyment and of course, pure profit by those lucky enough.

Getting started
During the 1530s the Italian government introduced a game they called "Lo Giuoco del Lotto D'Italia," in order to increase the national budget (a much better idea than raising taxes). This game the worlds very first lottery? was the beginning of the Bingo we know today. The plan was a great success; so much so, that centuries later, it is still played every Saturday in Italy. In fact, the national lottery contributes more than 75 milion dollars to the Italian governments annual budget. About two hundred years later, the French picked up on the idea and the game became the in thing for French aristocrats and nobles. They called it: Le Lotto. Not long after, an adaptation of the game was played in Germany, not just for fun, and not just by adults, but for educational purposes for children and students - as a tool to help teach mathematics and spelling.

Berlin to Baltimore
It wasnt until the the late 1920s that the European craze arrived in the USA. An American carnival pitchman travelling in Germany had the foresight to see the games potential. Back home, he made a few modifications, called his version Beano (at this time, the game was played using beans for markers) and introduced the idea at country fairs and carnivals. The people loved it.

One night, a sharp entrepeneur from New York, named Mr Lowe, happened to notice the excited crowd in the Beano tent at a carnival in Atlanta. Seeing the players enthusiasm, he soon realized that this was a game with a big future. He returned to New York, invited some friends round to try the new game, and again saw the same pleasure it created. It was during this historic game, that one player, believing she had won, called out Bingo instead of Beano, and the name just seemed to fit. Bingo was born!

Fun-raiser or fundraiser?
A few months after Lowe began marketing Bingo, a priest from Pennsylvania contacted him with a proposition to use the game to help raise funds for his church. They quickly put the plan into action, but soon realized that some fine-tuning was needed, as the existing numercial system on the cards resulted in several winners for each game. Lowe, still determined that Bingo was the solution, requested a professor of mathematics to create new cards with non-repeating numbers a challenge that the professor, Carl Leffler, accepted. The story goes that he was well remunerated by Mr Lowe, but paid dearly with his own sanity as a result. The church was saved.

Mr Lowe hit the jackpot
Word spead fast and after about 10 years there were about 10,000 Bingo games being played every week, everywhere in the US. Mr Lowes company could barely keep up his printing presses worked overtime and he was quoted as saying that he used more newsprint than the New York Times! By the late 60s, Bingo was being played in night clubs, giving it a new image entertainment for a stylish night out, and further increasing its popularity as a social event. Today, it is estimated that 90 million dollars are spent on Bingo by the American poluation, alone.

Part of our culture
And so, Bingo can clearly be called one of the worlds most popular games. Somehow, of all the betting games, it managed to maintain a clean image; played by all ages and all sorts though it is said that there are more women Bingoers than men. The internet has opened the game up to even more people and online games are now easy to find and easy to play. One can also play for free, just for the fun of it and to enjoy the chat rooms and online Bingo communities. Thousands of dollars are just waiting to be won everyday (statistics show that 96% of Bingo players have won at some time while playing). The more players, the bigger the prizes the get.