| Bingo was replica of the Italian lottery "Lo Giuoco del
Lotto d'Italia", that's why; Italians are credited for its
invention. Its history can be traced back to 1530. Even
today, it has been played every Saturday. Today the Italian
State lottery has become very crucial for the government's
finances, contributing almost 75 million dollars every year.
Beginning with Italy, the game moved to France in the
1770's, it was quiet popular among wealthy Frenchmen, at
that time, game was identified as "Le Lotto". In 1800's
Germany, developed its version of Bingo, they used it as a
child's game, to help students in learning math, history and
spelling.
During this period the popular version of the lottery was
born. Cards were divided into nine vertical columns and
three horizontal rows in the classic version of Bingo. One
to ninety numbers on wooden chips were placed in a bag and
they were drawn out one at a time. The first person, who
completes the horizontal row, was considered as a winner.
It was in the 1800s, the Italian lottery game, spread
through out Europe. From there the game was brought to
America via a carnival pitchman, who was touring Germany. He
changed its name to Beano and modified the game a little
bit. With this customized game, now, players were allowed to
complete a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally to win
the game. It was in 1929, one night he was working at the
carnival near Atlanta, when Edwin S. Lowe, a traveling toy
sales man, came by and decided to stop at the carnival. He
stopped at the Beano tent, but he could not play the game
because it was extremely crowded with people. He witnessed
all the excitement and thrill of the crowd, for the lottery
game and immediately recognized its potential appeal, in
making money.
On his return to his home in New York, Lowe procured some
beans, cardboard and a rubber numbering stamps. He invited
few of his friends, to find out their attitude, towards the
game. He saw the same excitement and tension among his
friends that he had witnessed in the carnival. During one
session, a player who was really close to winning
accidentally yelled out "Bingo" instead of "Beano". And a
slip of tongue instigated its name "BINGO". This is how Lowe
created the game bingo.
A priest, from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, came up with
the idea, to use bingo as a fund raiser, for his financially
ailing church. But immediately problems developed because
with only 24 unique cards, each game produced dozen or half
dozen winners. The priest showed his concern to Lowe and
asked him to produce, a large number of exclusive number
combinations for cards. Lowe was aware, of the fund raising
potential of bingo. So he enrolled the help of Carl Leffler,
a professor of mathematics, at Columbian University. He was
specified to create 6,000 new bingo cards. When he ended his
task, he was paid $ 100 per card. But finally the church was
saved, as the game had the sound potential for raising
funds.
Present Bingo is quit different from the classic bingo.
But one thing remains the same, is, that it is a purely a
game of chance and luck.
More About Bingo
|
 |
