Played all around the world in different variants, Bingo is a popular number game with a history that dates back to 16th century or even beyond that. Bingo, also known Lotto, is said to be originated somewhere in Italy before it traveled to countries like France, Germany and then America. It is said to be a descendant of an Italian lottery game called Lo Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia.
Edwin S Lowe
Edwin S Lowe is the founder of the Bingo being played on a large basis around the world. A toy salesman from New York, Edwin S. Lowe visited a carnival with game booths. In one of the booths, he found a man hosting a game similar to the Bingo. He saw that the
host was picking up random wooden disks from cigar box and calling the numbers out loud, while the players were marking their card by placing a bean on the number called. Edwin also saw that whoever completes a horizontal line of numbers first shouted Beano.
He then went home and played the same game with his friend. Seeing the excitement and popularity of this new game among his friends made Edwin decide to launch an improved version.
From Beano to Bingo
When Edwin S. Lowe played Beano at home with his friends, one of his friends pronounced Beano as BB Bingo that’s when Edwin decided to change the game into an improvised version, with a new name. From being Lotto to Beano, Bingo traveled a long way before it was improvised as a game which holds a close resemblance to modern day’s Bingo.
Bingo card combinations
Edwin S. Lowe asked Carl Leffler, who was a professor in Columbia University, to create better and improvised card combinations with different numbers. Carl Leffler took a year to come up with over 6000 Bingo cards. Apparently Carl Leffler came up with an estimation of more than 552,446,474,061,129,000,000,000,000 card combinations possible in Bingo.
How Bingo spread socially?
With Bingo's rising popularity as a family game, in 19th century the game was being seen as a community entertainment game with potential to help fund raising events. A catholic priest in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, asked Edwin to help him in using Bingo for raising church funds. From being a church community fund raiser, family entertainment to party game, Bingo soon entered the world of casino and gambling.
Modern Bingo
Today Bingo is a major part of many land based and online Bingo Halls offering variants like 75 Ball Bingo and 90 Ball Bingo. Internet sites are offering online Bingo games provides various advantages like free Bingo games, attractive jackpots and bonuses, automatic number marking services, Bingo tutorials and a friendly customer support service.
Bingo has turned into one of the highly played online game with an increasing fan following in United Kingdom, American, Europe and Asia.
