The History of Bingo

The game of bingo can be traced back to a lottery game called “Lo Giuoco del Lotto d’Italia” played in Italy in c.1530. By the eighteenth century, in France, the game expanded with playing cards, tokens,and reading the numbers out loud. In the nineteenth century, the game was widely used in Germany for educational purposes to teach children spelling and multiplication tables.

The game first appeared in America at a traveling carnival near Atlanta in 1929. Then called Beano, it was played with dried beans, a rubber stamp, and cardboard sheets. New York toy salesman, Edwin S. Lowe, was watching this game and noticed how engaged the players were.

Lowe took the idea with him to New York where he introduced the game to his friends. He conducted the game similar to the one he had witnessed, using dried beans, a rubber numbering stamp and card board. His friends loved the game. It is said that one of his players made bingo history when so excited to have won that they yelled out “Bingo” instead of “Beano.” The original Lowe Bingo Game had two versions; the first a 12-card set, the second a set with 24 cards. Bingo was a wild success.

After Bingo hit the market, Lowe was approached by a Catholic priest from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania as a means of raising church funds. When bingo started being played in churches it became increasingly popular. By 1934, an estimated 10,000 bingo games were played weekly, and today more than $90 million dollars are spent on bingo each week in North America alone.