The World Wide Bingo Phenomenon

• Author: Ed
• Filed under: General
• Date: Jun 22,2008

Did you know, no one actually knows how bingo came about?  The game has been played for at least a hundred years, and as to where it came from, no one knows.  Some think that the origins of bingo come from the Italian lottery dating back to as early as 1530, but others dispute it and think the roots of the game lie elsewhere.

Either way, bingo has been a big part of many peoples’ lives for a long time; and people play the game fanatically.  However, this game of luck and chance has a huge educational following also and many people use Bingo as a family game to teach their children to count and recognise numbers.

The Bingo Hall

Believe it or not, the bingo hall most probably originated in the early 1800s in America.  Back then, a variation known as Beano was doing the rounds as an educational toy until one day when a church parishioner saw the game of Beano and realised that it could be used to raise money for the church so he rapidly bought a few sets and tried to use them.  But, sadly there was not enough variance in the bingo cards so as a result there were too many winners and instead of making money this was now costing the church money.  So to end this, he commissioned the inventor of Beano to adapt the game for use in large numbers of people;  To do this he employed a mathematician to produce a set of 6,000 unique number cards – which apparently drove the mathematician insane! But as a result, the game was now suitable for a large number of players, and it worked! Bingo saved the small church, and many others – which as a result led to bingo becoming a very popular way to raise funds!

Next time your playing bingo and someone reminds you that gambling is a sin – you can tell them about it’s origins in the USA.