History of Bingo
The game we know today as bingo got its start a very long time ago, some historians believe up to nearly six hundred years, in the country of Italy. In that nation it was known by the moniker Lo Giuoco del Lotto d’Italia which basically translates to the clearing of the lottery of Italy. There is still a version of this game that is played in Italy, but the game we know today is an altered version that was actually first discovered in the United States by a traveling salesman from New York City. After Lo Giuoco del Lotto d’Italia rose from Italy, it traveled over the Alps to France where it picked up a steady following who added elements such as the cards and also the tokens that were used to cover the numbers which had been called out and give players a general idea of how close they were to achieving bingo. In Germany, the game was taken as an educational tool and used to convey different concepts to school children. While the word ‘bingo’ itself was first recorded in England in 1776, it was not named this as a game until that traveling salesman from New York City, Edwin Lowe, came upon a carnival tent featuring a game called Beano. This was 1929 and the Great Depression was in full swing so Mr. Lowe, being a true opportunist, saw a chance to take the game to the big time by developing its fun and action for a much bigger crowd than the one gathered around that Georgia carnival tent. The name turned out to be an accident that cropped up during a test game Lowe was performing. The excited player yelled bingo instead of beano and thus, Lowe’s Bingo Game was born. Instead of working to stifle his competitors, Low encouraged the game’s spread by asking for only a very small fee from those who wanted to conduct their own bingo games.
It would not be long before many different social groups began to see that the popularity and ease of set up needed for bingo made it a truly ideal game to use for fund raising events. By offering games for a small entry fee, churches and many other civic groups could use bingo to raise money for their activities in the community. They offered games in a variety of places and then came the bingo halls which were buildings used just for bingo. Since television arrived and reduced the number of movie theaters and other similarly social events, bingo proved to be a great way for people to be able to socialize as they had in the decades prior to TV’s arrival. The bingo halls took off not only in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom. The games took on a very traditional feel in both countries. Bingo spread like wild fire and casinos in both nations began to carry the game, as well. The halls and casinos each attracted big crowds until now, especially in the UK, bingo is a massive commercial business that both brings in huge profits and pays out giant prizes.
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