Bingo in the Beginning...

Bingo! That has now become a household term nowadays. It does not only mean that an individual wins in a bingo game, it is also used to denote that "you've got it right on the button!" But where in the world did bingo come from? Let's go see where did this household term and popular game originate.

Bingo traces its roots way back into the 16th century. In 1530, the unification of Italy brought about the introduction of a national lottery. The game was known as Lo Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia. It was otherwise known as Lotto. Lotto was played every week. Nowadays this game is a major source of income to Italy's government.

It was called Le Lotto in France, where the French adapted a different version of bingo. This version of bingo has strong resemblance with our modern day version.

Lotto soon became famous in Europe and was even used as a teaching tool in Germany. The game was used to teach multiplication tables.

The word bingo comes from Beano. It was the name of a variation of bingo played in the U.S. in the 1920's. The game was called Beano due to the fact that beans were actually used to cover the numbers that were drawn. As it turned out, one time an excited player mispronounced the name and instead shouted "bingo!"

In 1929 Beano was played in the U.S. on the carnival circuit. Edwin S. Lowe, a toy company owner, was able to observe the game. The game table was totally crowded full of excited people. A pitchman would pull out a wooden disk, announces the number on it, the players then reach for a bean and cover the corresponding number in his set of cards. When a player covers a whole line of numbers he would shout "Beano!" excitedly.

He noticed that the game was addicting enough that the game ended at 3 in the morning. The pitchman had to chase the patrons away. He then introduced bingo as a new game. Initially it was "test-played" by Lowe's friends. The tension and excitement (and addiction) the game caused inspired Lowe to introduce the game to the general public. Soon Lowe's bingo game became such a huge hit.

Bingo then became a tool for fund raising. Today churches and charity organizations primarily organize bingo games. It all began when a parishioner approached Lowe and asked if he could use bingo to raise funds.

Bingo was now becoming a large-scale success that a problem was discovered. The game would at times make a number of players win in a game. Carl Leffler, a math professor in Columbia University was commissioned to make the different number combinations for 6,000 new cards.

And from there the game took off and went sky high. It began as a game to show the solidarity of a nation, to a hit game in the US, and finally a fund-raising tool and a common household verbiage.

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