Bingo – The Game We All Know and Love

Bingo has become a casino favourite around the world, which is surprising when we take the time to look at how it started, and how it evolved into the game we know today. Bingo has always held a certain popularity, but the demographics of that popularity has changed over time, and while it’s now a staple of most modern land-based and online casinos, this wasn’t always the case.

For older generations, bingo was a game most commonly delegated to churches and community centres, and it wasn’t a game that one would look to for their helping of casino action. Real money slots, poker, craps, and Roulette tended to be the go-to for most players, and bingo would be what their grandparents would enjoy every Sunday. But we live in a new age, and bingo has found a comfortable new home with modern casino game enthusiasts.

The Earliest Versions of Bingo

Bingo has long been a part of the western world, although its ancestors were different to what the game is today. The earliest recorded version of the game can be traced back to 1530 in Italy, which was played every Saturday. This game was called, “Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia,” and was a form of Italian lottery.

Some time later, the game would make its way to 18^th century France, and here it was called, “Le Lotto,” which was most commonly enjoyed by the wealthy. Germany had its own version of the game, too, but it was more common as a children’s game than a serious method of gambling.

Bingo In North America

Like many of the United States’ current games and traditions, much of it was born out of the migrations that took place in the late 1800s and early 1990s. Bingo was one of these games, and it made its way to the country in 1929, where it was first known as Beano. Edwin S. Lowe would be the founder of modern Bingo as we know it, after he played Beano at a carnival in Atlanta.

After hiring a maths professor to help him iron out the numbers of the game, Lowe would go on to create something new and unique, which he would later on call Bingo. The game was not hugely successful at first, and Lowe battled for some years to find a player-base, which changed once the church became involved.

Bingo and The Church

When Bingo was first young, a priest approached Lowe and proposed using Bingo as a way to raise funds for his church. He’d use the game to appeal to people of all ages, and the playing card sales would go back into the church. This proved to be a huge success, and why the game became so popular among churches around the country.

Modern Bingo

In his later years, Lowe would design and build his own casino and offer Bingo as one of the games available to play. This was a smart move, and it didn’t take long for the game to make its way to other casinos around the United States. It became as popular as many of the other table games offered, and why we can go into just about any casino today and enjoy a game of Bingo.