The History Of Bingo – Where It All Started
Pinpointing the exact origin of anything is a soft science – generally riddled with assumptions (some more grandiose than others) and inconsistencies. The adage “a shot in the dark” comes to mind when trying to plot the precise course. What we do know is that Bingo started out as a lottery-like game, relying on the random drawing of numbers – in other words, a game of chance.
Classic literature suggests that Bingo can be traced all the way back to 1500 Italy – around 1530 to be more accurate. Lo Giuoco Del Lotto D’Italia was a conventional form of Bingo. Players would pick a set of numbers – later to be compared with a selection of numbers drawn from a drum-like container. Whoever had the most “matches” would walk away victorious.
French Intelligence
It was the French who decided to combine the luck of the draw with a game card. Cards would usually contain numbers appearing in rows, with numbers ranging between 1 and 90. Numbered wooden chips would be drawn from a drum and placed over the corresponding numbers on the physical card. Any player able to cover one complete horizontal line would be declared the winner.
A Matter Of Education
The Germans soon stepped up to the party, recognizing the educational value of the game. This time round, both numbers and letters were used – the numbers utilised in the traditional matching-it-up format and the letters to spell out a word.
Beano And Bingo – Teaching New Tricks To Old Dogs
Variations of Bingo had become so popular that by the 1920’s it was being played on street corners and at carnivals. It was at this time that it was stumbled upon by an American by the name of Hugh J. Ward. Ward happened upon a Bingo-like game being played by making use of dehydrated beans that were placed on a numbered card each time a particular number was called. Whoever reached Bean-heaven first would be required to holler “Beano” in order to be recognised as winner.
Popular opinion suggests that this later evolved into “Bingo” by way of a slip of the tongue and even today, yelling BINGO means you’ve won. When you play Bingo using a no deposit casino bonus in Canada you not only get money for free, you have the added bonus of yelling BINGO and winning real money for free- something that the original game can never compete with!
Bringing About the Rules
The idea of Bingo was soon lapped up by keen businessman Edwin S. Lowe. Lowe decided that it was the perfect game to be developed into a science, and working with a math professor from the University of Columbia, created a set of six thousand different Bingo cards – each with exactly the same odds of winning a game. It was a masterful endeavour that was subsequently officiated by the development of a set rule book in 1933.
The Rest Is History
By the 1970’s through the 1980’s the Bingo industry had evolved into becoming a major employer in the United Kingdom. Bingo had by this time officially settled into its rightful position in the global scheme of things and soon gave spark to the online Bingo world – now appealing to cyber enthusiasts as well. The rest, as they say, is history.
