The Main Facts of History

The Italians are credited with being the inventors of Bingo!  No, the name doesn't mean anything in Italian.  Actually, the game was first called "Lo Giuoco del Lotto  D' Italia."  From Italy, it went to France in the late 1770's and they shortened the name to "Le Lotto" and played strictly among the wealthy French aristocrats.  In the 1880's the Germans then developed their version of Bingo as an educational game for children to help learn math, spelling and history.

The game reached the US ( from which European country it is uncertain) during the depression and was first played at a carnival in Atlanta, Georgia.    At that time, the game was being called "Beano" because beans were used to mark the squares called on the cards.  A toy salesman from New York, named Edwin S. Lowe, changed the name of the game   when he heard a player miss-yell it as "Bingo" and not Beano.   The carnival version (drawing numbers from a cigar box and covering cards with beans) remained popular after the carnival left town.  Many people were playing Bingo by having a caller pull numbered disks out of a cigar boxes, bowls, or any other secure container and placing their beans on the appropriate number.  During the carnival, the prize was a Kewpie doll.  Afterwards, it usually was money.

 Mr. Lowe, seeing how popular Beano was,  decided to market the game under the miss-yelled name  he heard  "Bingo."  He hired a Columbia University math professor named Carl Leffler to help increase his sales by increasing the number of cards made.  By 1930, Professor Leffler invented over 6,000 different bingo card numerical variations.  (It is said that he later went insane in his life!)  

Bingo is considered a game of chance, like any rolling of dice game or lottery.  And because you spend money buying your cards (regardless if the prize is money or an item) to take a chance to win, it is considered gambling.  As with all chance games, there also comes the risk of addiction for some.  And, as such, there also comes the condemnation by some religious groups that it is a game of sin.  The irony of this is, Bingo first became a game as a motive to help raise money by a Catholic priest from Pennsylvania who approached Mr. Lowe.  When Bingo became a church fund-raising event, it energized its popularity among the population and sales increased. Thus, the church first used it as a fund-raiser and in many Catholic churches Bingo still is the main church fund-raising event.

By 1934 an estimated 10,000 bingo games were played weekly, even after the depression ended and the temptation of gaining sudden wealth wasn't as strong.  Today, Bingo is estimated to be a weekly $90 million spending in just North America.  

During both World War I and World War II (1939 - 1945) Bingo was a popular game among the troops.  In particular, the British servicemen during long voyages to the Far East would a version of Bingo called "Housey-Housey."

Today, there remains debates and lawsuits on the criminal nature of Bingo, if it's really gambling, the ages of who should play and the controls of it on Indian Reservations in the US.   Many feel whenever there is money + chance that's gambling. Bingo is a popular form of gambling that many feel is difficult to cheat at (unlike other gambling games) and is in some areas a high stakes serious game.

The game today not only brings in money for the clubs and organizations that host it, but for the bingo commercial market as well.   First there are those who print out cards. Through the years, they have grown from simple cards with beans or disks,  to sliding markers  or shutters to move , to today's  throw-away paper cards that you dab with a marker or blotter (some call it "dobbing" a combination  word of dabbing + blotting) of many colors.  And then we have Bingo on the internet, which has raised even more problems when it comes to those being underage.    There is also the Bingo commercial market of good luck charms, bingo accessories, jewelry,  figurines, t-shirts, bumper stickers, carry-alls, seat cushions and who knows what else.

Bingo games bring a variety of people together for a fun, social evening. And, they are mostly popular among the elderly because there is no real physical activity involved besides sitting at a table.  In many smaller clubs they have a "snack" committee that brings something each week for the group.  Other clubs are much too large to have a hometown closeness.  However, nerves are  often strained as one important number might wait and wait to be called.  And jealousies occur when two players vie for the same winning game and wait for their special numbers!