The game of bingo dates back to as far back as 1530 where it was played in Italy. There it was called “Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia.” It was very popular and when something is popular it travels. The game made its way to the land of the French where it was played mostly by French nobleman under the name “Le Lotto.”
Continuing its journey it eventually made its way to Germany where it wasn’t played among nobleman as much. Instead the game was used at a teaching tool. It helped children with math, history, and spelling skills.
A game with so many uses is bound to find its way to North America right? Right. And in 1929 it did just that. At a carnival near Atlanta, Georgia the game was played. There a toy salesman by the name of Edwin S. Lowe watched a game being played. At one point he overheard someone shout “Bingo” instead of the traditional bingo (for reasons unknown although it’s said it was completely accidental). From there he renamed the game Bingo and a phenomenon was born.
He spread the idea of using bingo as a game for fund raising, where people would invest money in cards with chances of winning small prizes. A small problem was eventually brought to his attention however. As it turns out, there were always way more winners than there should have been, and this was because of lack of types of playing cards.
Realizing this, Lowe invested in a Columbia math professor named Carl Leffler to invent new bingo cards. Leffler didn’t hesitate and created over 6,000 different bingo cards. Unfortunately, rumor has it that Leffler went completely insane after doing so.
Lowe incorporated the new cards and the game took off in popularity. By 1934 over 10,000 games were played weekly. And today over 90 million dollars are spent each week on bingo! And that’s just in North America!
Bingo has a long history, nearly 500 years worth! And I’ll be the first to say it was probably played long before then. But until some proof is dug up, we’ll have to stick with 1530 being the start date.
