History Of Bingo

1530 was the year that bingo came to birth but it was not known as bingo by name. That time it had an Italian name known as “Lo Gioco del Lotto d’Italia”.This shows that Italy is the country that takes credit for having this game in place. Late 1700,the French adopted this game which then was known as lotto where it involved possessing a card composed of three rows and nine columns. Four free spaces should be available per row to be considered as playing cards.

At that time, a caller who is a participant is required to pick out wooden chips placed in a bag. This is to ensure that no one chooses a number without looking. Numbers range from 1 to 90 where the column of wooden chips separated these numbers in 10s.The winner of the game was the first player to cover fully one row .This game started to gain popularity all over the Europe at that particular century.

The game reached North America in the 19th century where it was named as beano. The first place that this game landed and people enjoyed was a carnival based in Atlanta. The name was soon to change to bingo by toy salesman based in New York, Edwin S. Lowe. This was a result of overhearing a player shouting “bingo” upon win and he thought the name sounded more fun than beano.

He developed much interest in the game resulting in him seeking services of a math professor of Columbia University to determine if it’s possible to increase the number of combinations in cards used in bingo game. The math professor who was known as Carl Leffler invented a huge number of bingo cards amounting to 6000 by the year 1930.Rumor has it that these undertakings led to his insanity.

Sooner than later, Lowe received an awkward visitor based in Pennsylvania. A catholic priest approached him after realizing what bingo could do. He had an idea of using the game to avail funds for the church. This idea led to the game being played in churches resulting in increase of its popularity. According to statistics by that year of 1934,an estimate of bingo games amounting to 10,000 would be played every week.

You can imagine since 1934 to this date how the game has spread like flu. At the present time, bingo is said to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S alone. The seriousness of the game has shown why online sites are cropping up to replace physical bingo; some have created a fortune while others have incurred losses.

Years continue to pass but no single day will the popularity of bingo reduce. Increasingly, the game is finding its place across continents and people view it as a way of generating revenue. The popularity is mainly because of its rich history and use that many countries have legalized it thus people can play in social halls or access through the web. Thanks to Lowe and the university professor who made this game ideal for one to spend his/her leisure time playing. Appreciate the history and enroll for a game.