Bingo through the Ages

Whilst online bingo might possibly be the only exciting thing to come from men’s obsession with modern day technological wizardry (at least, that’s our opinion), the game itself isn’t new at all. In fact, it’s been around for almost five hundred years! Of course, the game itself has changed somewhat over the years, so let’s take a brief look at how our favourite pastime has evolved into what it is today...

The game of bingo can be traced right back to 1530, where a rudimentary lottery-type game called Lo Giucco del Lotto D’Italia was played every Saturday in Italy. This was the first lottery-type game in recorded history, and it seems that the Italians had it all to themselves for a couple of hundred years until it found it’s way to….

France. In 1770 wealthy French men (is that a nice phrase or is it just us?!) played a version of the game called Le Lotto. This game was very similar to the one played today in regular bingo halls, since it featured different game cards, 90 numbers drawn randomly from a sack and required players to mark a line in order to win.

In the late 19th century (1880 to be more specific) bingo was used as a teaching aid in Germany. Kids always learn more when they’re having fun, so the game was used to teach maths.

Bingo hit the United States of America as a game called Beano in 1929. The name derived from the fact that players placed beans over their numbers as a way of marking their cards and had to shout “Beano!” when they completed a line. By this time, bingo callers were also being used.

In 1930, Edwin Lowe created Beano cards which provided thousands of different number combinations. According to popular mythology, one player incorrectly called out “Bingo!” instead of “Beano!” during a game, and that’s how the modern name came into use.

History 1 - Early beginnings • History 2 - Bingo in the UK

30th January 2008