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Bingo History

September 29, 2009  /  admin  /   Comments Off

Unlike many other games of wagering, the history of bingo is a little bit more clear. Most historians agree that it first began around 600 years ago in the country of Italy where it was a national lottery known as Lo Giuoco del Lotto d’Italia which means the clearing of the lots of Italy, their way of describing what a lottery does. It would do quite well here and continues to be a wagering mainstay in this nation, but before long it would travel up over the Alps Mountains into the nation of France where it would be altered slightly and then passed along to Germany. In Germany, the lotto was altered slightly so that it could be used to teach children the various names of animals, plants, letters and numbers. Then it would be a brief period of quiet for bingo and it would not be until 1929 that a traveling salesman from New York City would discover a game called beano being played at a carnival tent just outside of Atlanta, Georgia in the United States. He noted that the crowds seemed fascinated by this game and went over to take a look. Since what he saw impressed him, he decided to invent a similar game and sell cards so that it could be played by anyone, anywhere. From this first investment, he turned bingo into a national past time in the US – it got it’s name from the fact that someone accidentally cried out bingo instead of beano during the development and testing phase of his game. The name stuck and so did the concept. Before long, church groups and other civic type organizations would begin offering the game as a way to raise money for different charities that they supported.

Then, the game spread to other nations and perhaps most notably, the United Kingdom. This is where it would catch fire and really take off even bigger than in the US. Both nations used the games in school to teach kids about numbers and so that meant a huge number of people came into contact with this game at a very early age. They would know how to play and they would also go on to play in the casinos and bingo halls that became major gathering places after the film industry was somewhat pushed aside by the invention of TV. Since TV was free, but not very social, it would prove to lead people to want to get together and have a good time so bingo was a natural solution for this. Later, the internet would move in and all of the people of all ages who knew how to play bingo would learn that one could play the game online and win prize money. This proved to be a huge draw and the bingo market on the web took off faster than anyone could ever have guessed. Although that sparked a small revolution, it is still very popular to play bingo in a variety of land based settings.