WHERE DOES BINGO COME FROM?
It’s hard to believe that Bingo as we know it today has evolved from centuries ago. Since 1530 in fact! Bingo originates from Italy where it started as a weekly lottery. It became very popular and by 1778 had spread to France where those of a more educated nature were enraptured by it. During the 1800’s the game spread throughout Europe, and it ended up becoming part of a carnival that made its way to America. Whilst the carnival was travelling around, some alterations were made to the game which allowed players to complete a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally, the name was then changed to ‘Beano’.
In 1929 a travelling salesman called Edwin S. Lowe came across the carnival where the Beano tent was the only game open. The tent was so full Lowe was unable to actually play, but he saw how excited the crowd got.
Realising the financial potential, Lowe returned to New York and created his own version of the game. The name only changed when Lowe heard one player accidentally shout out “Bingo”, Lowe loved the name so much it stuck.
Lowe quickly realised the game needed to diversify more so hired Carl Leffler, a Columbian Math Professor, to help him increase the number of combinations a bingo card could have. By 1930 there were over 6000 different bingo cards and the game really began to grow in popularity. It was reported Leffler went a little crazy after spending so much time doing the number configurations!
During this time Lowe was approached by a catholic priest about using bingo as a means of raising funds for the church, this was extremely successful and so bingo became even more popular. By 1934 an estimated 10,000 bingo games were being played on a weekly basis.
Bingo continued to grow as a favourite game to have fun and socialise and in 1968 it was formalised with the UK Gaming Act. In 1986 the National Bingo Game was legalised, allowing the same game of bingo to be played simultaneously at bingo halls across the country. One of the biggest changes to affect bingo since the game began back in the 16th century was of course the arrival of online bingo, which was only in 2003, when we got the first online bingo sites.
More than three million people play online bingo and traditional offline bingo, so isn’t it time you got in on the action?
Although bingo is the only gambling activity more popular with women than with men (roughly 70% of bingo players are women) the game continues to grow and is increasingly popular with younger people of both sexes.
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