It is rumored that bingo started in Italy and that its origins lie with the Italian Lottery. This makes sense to me because both games use numbers and you win money if you have the correct numbers in a sequence. The Italian lotto was played every
Saturday from as early as 1530, and by 1770 the game spread to France where it finally caught someone’s attention.
The first original cards were in three horizontal rows with nine vertical columns. Each row had a series of nine squares, five with numbers and four blank. They were arranged in random order. The first column was numbered from one to ten, the second 11 – 20 until the last column was numbered 81 - 90.
In order to play the game, wooden chips were numbed 1 to 90 and these were placed in a bag and pulled out one at the a time. Each player received a completely different card and the first person to cover their entire card won the bingo prize.
The popularity of the game only reached fever pitch in the 1800s when it became a craze that engulfed the whole of France. It was used for educational reasons to teach children a number of important lessons. The game was called beano at the time.
By 1970, the game spread across the country with thousands of games being played every week.
Ed Lowe, a toy dealer from New York, saw the game being played at an Atlanta carnival. He returned to New York, where he bought dried beans, some cardboard and a rubber numbering stamp. He then invited some friends to play beano with him at his apartment and he took the role of pitchman. Soon, his friends were playing beano with the same enthusiasm and excitement as the people at the carnival had. During one of their games, a woman was very close to winning. Her last number was called and instead of shouting “Beano” she shouted “Bingo”. Ed Lowe had two variations for the game – a twelve-card for $1 and a 24-card for $2. The game caused his toy business to skyrocket.
Ed Lowe asked a professor to help him find the different number variations. The professor came up with 6000 variations and, strangely, went insane after that.
When bingo reached the United States, it underwent many changes until it became the proper bingo that we are familiar with today. There are now many bingo tournaments, bingo casinos and online bingo sites.
Today, bingo games can be found just about anywhere. From its simple, humble beginnings, bingo is still one of the most loved games in the world. Whether you buy money at your local carnival or if you buy big bucks at the next bingo tournament, bingo offers many opportunities for fun, friendship, and winning, to everyone!!!
Joy-Anne writes weekly online bingo articles for the website online-bingo.com - bingo news, information, free daily tips, free expert articles and more.
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