The Origins of Bingo

Culture is prone to boundary spanning, when overseas traveling and exploration is universal. What appears to be prevalent in one part of the globe is bound to have its presence all over entire world. Time may warrant certain differences some time leading to decades, but inventions and innovations cannot be constrained. As water forms its terrain, likewise knowledge, information and awareness spread though progressively, yet with determination.

Bingo, the modern day entertainment and money producing game got its origins in Italy. It was way back in the year 1530 that the game was introduced, but truly gained its popularity within the last few centuries when it has made itself a worldwide accepted lottery game.

In the year 1530, "Lo Giuoco Del Lotto D'Italia", a weekly lottery was launched which was supposed to be played only on Saturdays. During that time French visited Italy in flocks and the game like a contagious disease spread to France and amazingly caught the attention of the scholastic elite. The game got a new dimension with cards drawn to three horizontal and nine verticals, forming a grid. In Germany, it was even used for educational purposes, where children would learn spelling and multiplication by using bingo cards.

In the U.S., the carnival pitchman who started the game under the name of "beano" was actually the pioneer of Bingo and contributed to its inception in United States. One night when he was working in his carnival tent in Jacksonville, Georgia, he got a visitor, Edwin S. Lowe. Lowe was a traveling toy salesman and by the time he arrived at the carnival, the only tent open was that of beano. Curiously, he entered the tent and was amazed by excitement and scintillating atmosphere inside. The crowd was euphoric and very involved in the game.

Lowe, a toy designer, was an enterprising salesman. He instantly gauged the potential of the game and thought well in advance to definitely propagate the game to its clients out east.

He connived at experimenting with some beans, cardboard and some rubber stamps. After giving an interesting look to the game he invited some of his friends to play the game, and could experience exactly the same level of excitement that he witnessed in the carnival tent. His friends were equally excited and on impulse one of them yelled "Bingo". It was a landmark yell, as it coined a word which gave this game a brand new name that we all know today.

Bingo got popular. Children, parents, people from different walks of life, all loved the game. It was even introduced in churches through the subtle and planned efforts of a reverend priest from Wilkes- Barre in Pennsylvania. The priest was approached by one of his parishioners with an idea that if he allowed the promotion of game in order to raise funds, it could get the church out of the financial crunch. The priest got convinced but soon after realized that with the current number of cards, twenty four, the probabilities for winning were way too high.

Lowe, realizing the shortcoming of the game, contacted a mathematics professor Carl Leffler at Columbia University and asked him to come up with 6,000 new bingo cards with non repeating number groups, thus vastly minimizing the probabilities of winning.

As the game became very popular it got recognition and acceptance throughout United States and Europe. The game traveled worldwide and even captivated imitators that modestly made some changes and made fast money. It was Lowe's generosity that made his competitors very comfortable by paying him a dollar in exchange for his trademark name, and thus slowly and gradually the word "Bingo" became generic.

From Italy's "Lo Giuoco Del Lotto D'Italia", to France's "Le Lotto", to German children's teaching aid, and North America's Beano, the game of Bingo slowly graduated from caravans to schools to churches, to finally become a great mode of entertainment. Available in numerous bingo halls, as well is many web casinos, it is one of the most popular games today.