Who invented Bingo?
Back in 1530 Bingo history started, “Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italina” an Italian lottery which up until now is being played in Italy every Saturday. It was in the late 1770’s that it was introduced to France. “Le Lotto” was its name in France. This is a game that only the wealthy Frenchmen were allowed to play. In the 1800’s, Germans played their own version of Bingo, however, they used the game as a tool to help students in Germany to learn their spelling, math and history.
Now let us talk about Bingo History in the United States, it was called originally as “Beano”. This is normally done in a country fair games, where the dealer or caller will draw numbered discs from a tiny makeshift cigar box, then the players will mark their cards or papers with beans. Once they win the will then yell “Beano!”
In 1929, when it finally arrived in North America, it was known as “Beano”. It was noted that the game was first played near the area of Atlanta Georgia. It was a New Yorker named Edwin S. Lowe (a salesman), when then named it as “Bingo”. It is also known that he hired Professor Carl Leffler (a Math Professor from Columbia University). He was the one who helped Edwin S. Lowe to increase the current number combinations in the said Bingo cards. It was in 1930, that Prof. Leffler was able to invent different Bingo cards that totaled to 6,000. It was also said, that after that Leffler went from sane to insane.
Going back to Bingo History, there was a Catholic Priest from Pennsylvania, who met with Lowe to ask him for permission in using the game as a way of raising funds for his Church. It was then that churches followed the suit and the game Bingo increased it popularity. By the time of 1934, there was an estimated 10,000 games being played weekly. To date, there are over $90,000,000 are being spent on Bingo games each week, this is just in North America. Imagine the number when you add the rest of the world.
People from all over the world now are enjoying this game whether they play it in their favorite Bingo halls, Casinos, or even online Bingos. We can all attribute the success of the game, to those people who made sure that this game is meant to be played by everyone and not by just the rich ones. Bingo History may have started with merely beans and cards, with different names and certain group of people only. But today, this game is adored and loved by the young and the old, the rich and the poor, in their quest to earn or win big prizes and to just have hours and hours of fun.