A History of Bingo
Bingo!
By Sally Crown
Bingo was first played in 1530, when the Italians created a national lottery called this lottery is still being played every Saturday in Italy. By 1778 the French had adapted the game making small changes including some to the the card which they divided into three horizontal and nine vertical rows. The vertical rows contained numbers from 1 to 10 in the first row, 11 to 20 in the second row, etc…, up to 90. No two Lotto cards were the same.
The Germans also played a version of the game in the 1800s, but they used it as a childs game to help young students to learn math, spelling and history. By 1929 the games popularity had spread to the USA. where a variation of bingo was played horseshoe shaped table covered with numbered cards and dried beans. Players marked their cards by placing a dried bean over the number. Once they had completed a line, the player called out Beano.
Beano quickly caught on and became renamed Bingo. The early versions of the game were great fun but produced five or six winners which was a slight problem. This was solved by new Bingo cards with non repeating number groups being designed. When bingo started being played in churches, to raise funds, it became increasingly popular.
