While bingo is perceived as a very simple game to play, the history of Bingo is quite the opposite as its shaping and development actually transcends continents, with the game establishing itself firstly in Europe then moving on to the Americas and then eventually being embraced by the rest of the world.
The roots of the modern game of Bingo can be traced as far back as the 16th Century to the confederacy of Italy in 1530. The "Lo Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia" was the first state run lottery, which proved immensely popular with both the population and the government itself, as it generated a healthy amount of revenue for the governing state.
In the 17th century, "Lo Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia" reached the shores of France and quickly became all the rage throughout the country, and was played with a 9x3 card with numbers printed on it. (For all intents and purposes, it was an equivalent of today's 90 ball Bingo).
Column 1 had random numbers between 1 and 10, Column 2 between 11 and 20 and so on up to 81-90 on the last column. Additionally, every Row had just 5 numbers and 4 blanks. The winner was decided by who was the first to cover the numbers on an entire row.
As European settlers travelled far and beyond into the New World, they brought with them their pastimes and it was here that the history of Bingo underwent its next major development.
The game took off slowly, but by the 1920s a variation of the game (beano) was being played in Georgia. It was in the 1930s, however, when Edwin Lowe, a down on his luck toy salesman realised the potential in Beano, a game which involved a caller drawing numbered discs from a bag and shouting out the number to the waiting players. Each player had a game card with numbered squares and some dried beans. Every time a number was called out which was on their card, they would cover the number up with a bean. The first player to have a straight line of beans, either in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal direction was declared the winner.
Edwin Lowe with the help of Carl Leffer, a math teacher made a few changes, and additions and renamed the game bingo, this is when the game finally began to take off!
The game became a huge success, and in an ironic twist, Lowe's biggest customers turned out to be church groups promoting charity gatherings, which was certainly a far cry from its beginnings when the Vatican opposed "Lo Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia" nearly 200 years earlier. Even to this day, charity and fund raising events sponsored by the church regularly feature bingo games.
The widespread popularity of the game would eventually lead to the development of the game further, and lead to the organisers giving away bigger cash prizes. In time, Bingo would eventually become not just a game, but a social event as well grossing billions upon billions of pounds a year across the globe.
In the UK alone, bingo comprises a total annual stake of around £1.1 billion, that's a massive figure that is set to grow even more in the near future.
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