The game of bingo has indeed come a long way since its first conceptualization back in the 16th century. From being viewed as a charitable game being held in church hall, the game of bingo is now one of the most highly successful and popular games in the gambling scene. This is not only true for the real world but also for the many online sites which offer bingo as well.

Not Just For Old Ladies!

Generally, images that comes to the mind when the word Bingo comes up is middle-aged people playing in a charity hall. But that is not the case as Bingo has a really rich past and an exciting future.

Popular in Great Britain and the US

Bingo, especially in Britain and the United States is one of the nation’s obsessions right at the moment. From just being played in church hall, bingo is now a major success and even the youth are discovering the joys of playing a bingo game.

Bingo traces back its roots to the mid 1500’s in Italy. After Italy’s unification in 1530, Italy’s national lottery was born. The Upper crust of the Italian society and after that, the nobility in Germany were very keen and enthusiastic about the idea and played this lotto-like game at their parties. The Germans even used the game to teach students in their country math, history and spelling.

This lotto-like game came into North America around 1929 and became known as Beano. The carnivals of Georgia first became the venue for this game.

A Brief History

It was there that Edwin Lowe, a New York Toy businessman discovered the game. He became immediately interested. Edwin Lowe then decided to try out his own version of Beano. He bought some beans and some cards which contained number combinations. His acquaintances and friends thought that the game was interesting and it managed to attract a sizeable crowd. Legend says that a woman, after filling out her card became so excited that she yelled BINGO! instead of Beano.

Edwin Lowe became the chief marketer and producer of the game that he had ‘invented’. The growing popularity of bingo caught on quickly and soon Edwin realized that he must mass produce the game after a priest approached him about using bingo as a tool for fundraiser. You can imagine the rest and how Bingo became associated with churches after that first event was so successful in raising funds.

With the help of a mathematician, he mass produced 6,000 number card combinations and the rest is history. By the mid 1930’s there were an estimated 30,000 weekly games that are being played across the country. From there is grew into the mass hysteria that is now bingo today.