Bingo's Origin and Beginnings

Ever wonder where and when bingo started? The game that most of us know started way back as far as mid 16th century, it was 1530 to be exact to a game called Lotto which is played in Italy. It was called "Lo Giuoco del Lotto D'Italia" a game which is still being played in Italy every Saturday. Up to now, this lottery contributes a great source of income to the government.

By the late 1770, the game was introduced to France where it was popularly known as "Le Lotto". It was a game popularly played among rich and famous Frenchmen.

Lotto became very popular and it continued to be known throughout Europe. In 1880, a version of the game was played by the Germans where Lotto was used as a game and as an educational tool to teach children learn math, history and spelling. It even formed as a basis for some other games and educational toys still present in toy stores today.

By 1929, the game reached North America and it became known as "beano". It was first played in a local carnival in Atlanta, Georgia where it became very popular. And usually all the seats were taken.

A New York toy salesman named Edwin S. Lowe who happened to witness the popularity of the game in Georgia decided to invite his friends to his apartment and introduced the game to them. One time, one of the players on her excitement became tongue-tied and shouted "Bingo!" instead of "beano". Lowe hearing her shout knew from that moment that he was going to introduce that game to the public in a new name which is "Bingo".

It brought success to Lowe's company but later he realized that he needed to develop and produce a number of combinations for his cards. He asked the help of Carl Leffler, a mathematics professor from Columbia University. By 1930, Leffler had developed 6,000 more different bingo cards at a cost of his sanity as many people speculated.

After that, bingo really flourished and by 1934, it was estimated that 10,000 bingo games were being played weekly and until today more than ninety million dollars {$90,000,000} are being spent each week on bingo in North America alone.

From its beginnings up to now bingo is being played on game houses throughout the world and even through the internet. It is such an interesting and entertaining game that no wonder it became very popular throughout the world.