The History of Bingo

You might be surprised to know that the game of bingo has been around for quite a long time. Granted, the name bingo given to the game didn't happen until the 20th century but the basic premise of the game has been played for centuries.

In Italy during the 1500's, a popular game quickly spread across the countryside. Know as "Lo Giuoco del Lotto D'Italia," or "The Clearance of The Lot of Italy", the game is still played today in Italy. Florence was the birthplace of this game and as news of it travelled so did the game. Other Italian cities such as Venice and Genoa began to feature the game. Eventually in time, this game was the predecessor of Italy's National Lottery, which remains today.

The next country to see this game was France. The game began being played here during the 1700's. Typically, played as a game for the rich and affluent members of French society, the game began to use a card which is quite similar to the bingo card used today in 90 ball bingo. It is made up of 27 squares formed from three rows and nine columns. Like bingo today, these cards were all different from one another.

Germany was the next European country to which the game of bingo spread. Here the game was played in schools by schoolchildren. The game was used in classrooms to learn various school subjects such as math, history and spelling. Schools across the globe today still play bingo to learn content matter.

In the early 1900's bingo made its presence in the United States. Here the game was dubbed "beano" referring to the beans which players used to mark their bingo cards. Originally bingo was mainly played at community events such as county fairs. Eventually, the name did change to bingo. The word bingo came when a player inadvertently called bingo rather than beano. Later the game was marketed under the name bingo by an American businessman named Edwin Lowe. Since then the game was then referred to as bingo by those that enjoyed the favourite pastime.