| |
HISTORY OF THE BINGO
Bingo was originally called, 'Beano' which was played at county fairs with a caller drawing discs from a cigar box and players marking their cards with beans to cover the numbers called. If they were to win, they would yell 'beano'.
The history of bingo dates back as far as 1530 in Italy. The game then moved into France in the late 1770aˆ™s but was primarily played by the wealthy. The game then made its mark in Germany amongst children for education purposes. The game of Bingo moved to US in 1929 as 'Beano' The name, ' bingo ' was developed through a mistake. A bingo player at a county fair yelled ' bingo ' instead of 'beano' and thus, BINGO was the new name.
Edwin Lowe took the game of beano and redeveloped into Bingo. He worked with a man named Carl Leffler to help him to increase the games capabilities. By 1930, there were over 6000 different bingo cards.
The game of bingo attracted a catholic priest as a means of fundraising for the church. By 1934, an estimated 10,000 bingo games were played weekly. Today, over $90 million is spent on bingo each week in the US alone.
The game of bingo is played in numerous ways today. Some still play bingo on hard cardboard cards using some form of a marker to cover the called numbers. This is very rare today however. Many land bingo halls now use paper sheets where bingo players can use an ink dauber to mark the called bingo numbers. Some land bingo halls now have a video bingo machine as well where the called bingo numbers are automatically posted on their bingo video machine.
Thanks to our world of technology, bingo lovers can now play bingo in the comforts of their home on the computer. Playing bingo online has become a very popular pastime throughout the world. There are thousands of online bingo sites ranging from FREE to some very large cash prizes. To play bingo online is not as hard as some may think. Most of the work is done by the computer allowing the bingo player to have time and freedom to chat with other fellow bingo players.
To play online bingo, a player must first register with a bingo site. After registering, if the bingo site is a cash to play site, they make a monetary deposit into their accounts. Most online bingo sites reward the bingo players for depositing by crediting them with matching deposit bonuses. After the bingo player has money in their account, they are ready to play bingo. They would purchase their bingo cards and let the games begin. The computer is set up to call 75-90 balls depending on the country that the online bingo site is based. The computer will automatically daub the bingo playeraˆ™s cards and most times, it will automatically call bingo for the player and credit their account with their winnings. It is really quite a simple game.
Most online bingo sites have a ' bingo chat ' installed as well. In bingo chat, bingo players can participate in chat games with the other bingo players and the chat host. The chat host will play various aˆ?chat gamesaˆ? rewarding bingo players with bonus dollars or even, in some cases, hard cold cash. Bingo Chat has fast become a must for online bingo sites. It is the core of the site in many cases. In Bingo Chat, bingo players learn of upcoming events and become part of the bingo community. If a bingo player needs help, the bingo chat host is usually well trained to help the player find the answers.
So as you can see, the game of Bingo has come a long ways from the days of placing beans onto a card. It is a game of chance and brings to the table a great community
A Few Hundred Years Later......
In about 1530 Italy introduced a national lottery known as "Lo Ginuco del Lotto D'italia" which is still played and was the first money national lottery in the world. The Italian National Bingo style lottery generates about $75 million a year for the Italian Government. The Italian Lottery Game is played with 90 numbers instead of modern bingo's 75. The Italian Game also features names of Italian cities at the top of cards instead of the five letters in BINGO. A popular parlor game called Lotto was developed based on this Italian National Lottery and the game was introduced to France in the 1770's where it was called "Le Lotto".In France the game was played by the wealthy for entertainment, the Germans began playing Bingo in the 1800's and the game was primarily used for education. Students would learn math, spelling and history using bingo like cards.
Before the legalization of lotteries in the United States the Italian lotteries were played illegally by about 2 million Americans, mostly of Italian extraction. They would get the results of the Italian Lottery in American Newspapers.
Lottery like games were played in motion picture houses in the 1920's, theatre patrons were given draw tickets when they entered the theatre and when the winning ticket was drawn the holder of the corresponding ticket would yell "Bingo", this may have been the origon of the word bingo. During this era however, the type of Bingo we now play was called Beano. Beano was first played at carnivals and traveling salesman Edwin S. Lowe stumbled upon the game in 1929. Ed noticed the excitement created by the game and when he returned to his home in New York, Lowe bought some dried beans, a rubber numbering stamp and some cardboard. Friends were invited to his apartment and Ed Lowe assumed the pitchman's duties. Soon his friends were playing Beano with the same tension and excitement as he had seen at the carnival. During one session Lowe noticed that one of his players was close to winning. She got more excited as each bean was added to her card. Finally there was one number left - and it was called! The woman jumped up, became tongue tied, and instead of shouting "Beano," stuttered "B-B-B-BINGO!"
He hired a mathematician to increase the number of possible card combinations for bingo and went about selling his game as a parlor game to be used at home by friends and family .On a bingo card, a number can appear only once on a single card. Calculating the total number of possible combinations tells us there are 552,446,474,061,129,000,000,000,000 possible Bingo cards. Early on in his attempts to sell the game he was approached by a priest in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania who wanted to used the game to raise funds for his church. When games began being played in churches the popularity of the game rapidly increased. By 1934, an estimated 10,000 bingo games were played weekly and today more than $90 dollars are spent on bingo each week in North America alone.
The most recent development in Bingo is playing online. Online Bingo offers the convenience of playing in your own home at anytime. Because of the potential of having huge numbers playing, the potential online Bingo Jackpots are huge. You can chat using the chat feature of many sites with people from all over the world or leave the chat feature off and enjoy your game. There are many sites to choose from and the most reputable, most entertaining sites are described on this web site.
Lets Go BINGO
|