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The 479 Year History of Bingo

09-03-2009

Whether they’ve taken part in a game or not, the majority of people in the Western world will have at least heard of the game Bingo. It’s one which originates in early 16th century Italy and it has certainly come a long way in the 479 years that it has been around.

The very first instance of Bingo was radically different to that which is around today. Indeed it had a different name; ‘Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia’ or ‘The Clearance of the Lot of Italy’, which involved ten wheels (all named after famous Italian cities). Each player could then choose from 1 to 10 numbers for 1 or more of these wheels and if any two or more of these numbers matched the five that were drawn out for each wheel (are you lost yet?) then a prize would be won. For example, if someone chose to bet 1 Euro on numbers 1, 7, 19, 22, 28 and 45 on the wheel entitled ‘Palermo’ and the caller then announced numbers 5, 19, 28, 35 and 36 then that person had matched two numbers, therefore winning ‘Ambo’. Ambo would pay out 250 times the original bet and therefore the person would win 250 Euros. Sounds like a good deal doesn’t it? This very traditional form of Bingo was incredibly popular and so much so that it is still practised today in Italy on Tuesdays, Thursday and Saturdays.

Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia was brought back to the US much, much later in the late 1920s. The first recorded instance of Bingo in America was in Atlanta, GA where it was played at a carnival and known as ‘Beano’. It was called beano because players were given a card and when the numbers were called they placed beans on top of their numbers, until a line was completed and they shouted ‘BEANO!’. Sounds familiar, right? The name Beano only became Bingo when a New York toy salesman misheard someone shouting the call. This man, named Edwin S. Lowe, was responsible for making Bingo the game we know today as he increased the numbers of bingo cards and then marketed the game to churches so that they could raise their much needed funds in a fun and sociable way.

Today we see bingo as an equally online and offline pursuit. It was in 1996 when the first Bingo game appeared online, known as ‘Bingo Zone’ where it was more of a marketing strategy for players rather than a game played for fun. Instead of betting money and receiving money as prizes, members ‘bet’ by giving information on their company and would ‘win’ adverts targeted towards their company. Slowly more and more Bingo sites began to creep online and when the smoking ban came in a huge number of Bingo fans moved out of the traditional club halls and back into their homes. Soon the majority of Bingo players were present online, making friends through the chat rooms included on the sites and as a result more and more younger people were getting involved. It seems that through the years Bingo started as a game popular with the younger generations at fetes and carnivals, but this was to change in the 20th century when the elderly were the main players. Now Bingo is popular with all ages alike.

The fundamental concepts behind the Bingo game have always remained the same, even from 479 years ago. The format and game play may have changed dramatically but it’s still based on the same traditional idea that the Italians came up with and consequently adored. Who knows what the Bingo game will be like in almost another 500 years from now!