The Roots of Bingo - Play Bingo Online or to the Bingo Halls

Bingo or Beano as it was originally called is a very, very old game. In the old years beano was played in country fairs, a dealer would pull out numbers from a cigar box and players would mark cards with beans. If the card was completed players would shout beano aloud. The roots of the games are traced back to the 1530 in Italy at Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia, which still exists and is played every Saturday in Italy.

The name bingo was derived by accident in the United States by Edwin Lowe, a Toy Salesman that heard someone shout bingo instead of Beano. He then took the decision to hire Carl Leffler a mathematician from Columbia University in order to increase the combinations on cards and expand the game. Leffler had managed to invent 6,000 different bingo cards till 1930.

Lowes attempt for expansion had been rewarded when a priest asked him if he could use the game for fund raising at churches. By the year 1934, 10,000 bingo games were played on a weekly basis. Today $90 million dollars are spent on bingo each week in North America alone.