History of Bingo

Ancient Times and the origins of Bingo.

It is said that the game of Bingo began in ancient times and was played by Roman soldiers in their garrison when they were not at war. A similar game was also said to be played in ancient Japan in the royal courts of emperors which is believed to have developed into what we know today as Keno.

Officially however, the origins of our modern game can be traced back to Italy in 1530, where it was recorded that a State run lottery game similar to bingo began. The game "Lo Giuco del Lotto" still runs to this day, and is played every Saturday by the Italian nation.

The game spread as far as France by the late 1700's where it had began to take a form similar to today's game. It was called "Le Lotto" and played with playing cards, tokens and the numbers called out loud.

Throughout the 1800's many variations of the game evolved as the game gained popularity across Europe. In Germany it was used as an educational tool in schools, designed to teach students maths, spelling and history. Educational Bingo is still in use today.

One popular form played at leisure across Europe had a player's card divided into 3 horizontal rows and 9 vertical ones. The first vertical row contained the numbers from 1 to 10, the second from 11 to 20, until 81-90 on the ninth vertical row.

The 3 horizontal rows each contained five squares with numbers in them and 4 blank ones. The caller would then draw from a bag of wooden chips numbered from 1 to 90. The object of the game was to be the first to completely cover one of the 3 horizontal rows. The blank squares were considered free squares much like the free square in the Bingo cards of today.

The British Military took this game with them to pass the time overseas, where it became known as "Housy Housy" which spread all over the Commonwealth, becoming hugely popular in Austrailia early in the 20th century. As the game started to gain commercial appeal, it was held in large marquees before moving into community halls.

Modern “Bingo” is born.

Along with its European settlers, a version of the game had spread across to America. The earliest known game recorded was in 1929 at a carnival near Atlanta, Georgia during the great depression. "Beano" was played with a can of dried beans, a rubber stamp and a piece of cardboard containing a grid of numbers. Players would shout "BEANO!" if they completed a line on their card.

 

Edwin Lowe, a New York toy salesman observed a game at the carnival, and immediately sought to commercialise the game on a mass scale. He introduced the game to his board of directors back in New York with the notion of producing it as a game set.

One of the directors shouted "BINGO!" and the name stuck. "Lowe's Bingo" was soon very popular and Lowe patented his game. Competitors were to pay him $1 per year to allow them to call their games Bingo as well.

According to Lowe, the largest bingo game in history was played in New York's Teaneck Armoury with 60,000 players - with 10,000 being turned away at the door.

It is said that Lowe hired a Columbia University maths professor to help him increase the number of combinations in bingo cards. By 1930 Carl Leffler had developed 6000 bingo cards with non repeating number sequences and went mad in the process!

Calculating the total number of possible combinations there are 552,446,474,061,129,000,000,000,000 possible Bingo Cards, 4,976,640,000 of which would have the same twenty four numbers, but in a different arrangement.

It didn't take long for Charities to realise the potential Bingo had to raise funds for their cause. A Catholic priest from Pennsylvania is said to have approached Lowe about using Bingo as a means to raising money for the Church. Christian approval led the game to increase in popularity while other forms of gambling were at the time considered immoral in many states of America, by 1934, an estimated 10,000 bingo games were played weekly.

By the 1940's Bingo games had sprung up all over the country there were an estimated 10,000 bingo games a week across the United States. Bingo was often held in Movie houses, and the cinema screen used to call the numbers. The game was often nicknamed "Screeno" where cinema goers would receive bingo cards for the price of admission and compete for cash prizes.

Swinging 60's

Back in the UK, it was not until the 1960's that Bingo exploded into public popularity when a Gaming Act was passed by Parliament allowing the game to be played in members only clubs.

Later in 1968, another gaming act was passed allowing clubs to play cash and prize games using tabletop coin-slots. A gaming board was developed to regulate Bingo clubs as they were becoming very popular; by the 1980's Bingo Halls had set up in every major town in the UK.

In Bingo's golden age, it was played in Halls, Cinema's and churches across the country, it became a major attraction in holiday camps like Butlin's and even became adopted by the tabloid press as a game played in their daily news papers. The bingo industry still employs over 20,000 people from callers, and change givers to cleaners and accountants. Currently there are 699 licensed and operating bingo clubs in Great Britain.

Bingo Today

Lately the climate has changed in America and the UK for the popular game of Bingo: While in America, gambling has been severely restricted in many States, the smoking ban and high taxes in the UK have taken a heavy toll on Bingo Halls all over Britain, with players choosing to stay at home and venues removing popular slot machines that are not cost effective.

This has resulted in the increasing popularity of internet bingo. Ironically, though played by people in their own homes, many believe on-line Bingo to be more social than the traditional game: In Bingo Halls it is forbidden to talk during the games, while on-line it is actively encouraged!!

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