Bingo History
The absolute origins of Bingo dates back several centuries to 1530 Italy, where individuals participated in a lottery style game called, “Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia”, which is still played in the country today each Saturday. The game was introduced to French nobility in the late 1770s, where it was simply called “Le Lotto”. However, in this article, we will focus more on the origins of the fantastic game as it is known today - “Bingo!”It all started at a small carnival just outside of Atlanta, Georgia in 1929. A toy manufacturer from New York by the name of Edwin Lowe was perusing the fairway of the carnival when he caught wind of a great commotion in one of the large, covered tents. Upon entering, Lowe discovered a mass of people seated at tables playing a game called “Beano”.
The game was played with each player using dried beans to cover the numbers depicted on a cardboard Beano card. The Beano card held 25 squares in a 5×5 pattern, with a random number between 1 and 75 in each square. At the front of the tent was a man drawing numbered discs from a cigar box. This man would call out the number on the disc, and the players would ‘bean’ their cards accordingly.
The Beano game went on into the wee hours of the night, with a large crowd of enthusiastic participants still remaining. Finally, around 2-3am, the man running the game told everyone to please go home - the game is over. Much to their displeasure, and not without argument, the players finally left.
Edwin Lowe was astonished by the overwhelming excitement the game had aroused. He took the idea back with him to New York, developing his own cardboard Beano cards and numbered discs. To test the value of his idea, Lowe invited a group of friend over to play the game of Beano.
It was a massive success. Not only did his friendly greatly enjoy the game, one of them, filled with excessive joy at completing the single-line pattern, jumped up and shouted “Bingo!” by accident, rather than Beano - and thus, Bingo was born.
Edwin Lowe needed more materials before he could market the game he affectionately deemed, “Lowe’s Bingo”. He employed Carl Leffler, a professor of mathematics at Columbia University, to design 6,000 Bingo cards, each with a unique pattern of numbers. By 1930, Leffler had completed the task, delivering Lowe 6,000 non-repeating Bingo cards. It is not proven, but widely believed, that after completing the job, Professor Leffler went insane.
Edwin put his new game, Lowe’s Bingo, on the market and it was an instant success. Competitors wished to market the game as well, paying Lowe $1 per year to use the name “Bingo”.
In the 1940’s, a pastor had the brilliant idea to raise funds for his organization by offering games of Bingo to his congregation. From this came a whirlwind effect that is still found in massive quantities today - the use of Bingo to raise money for charitable events.
Viaden Media is happy to introduce a new bingo game among its casino games for sale. Please contact our sales representative to buy a bingo for your casino site.
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