History

Bingo was created in Italy in 1530 as a lottery. This weekly lottery was held every Saturday since it started. By 1778 the game had spread to France and captured the attentions of the educated classes. It was during this period that the popular version of the game was launched. Cards were divided into three horizontal rows and nine vertical columns. During the 1800s the games spread even further and soon most of Europe caught the Bingo bug. The game was also adapted as an educational tool to help children in learning their multiplication tables, spelling and even some part history.

What started as the Italian lottery the game made its journey to America via a carnival touring through Germany. Here the carnival recognized its appeal as a carnival tent game. He made a few alterations to the game, including allowing players to complete a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally. The name was then changed to Beano. He was working at the carnival one night in 1929 near Atlanta when a traveling toy salesman, Edwin S. Lowe, came by. With some spare time on his hands Lowe decided to stop at the carnival. The only tent he could find open was the Beano tent, which was so crowded with people that Lowe wasn't able to play the game for himself. Lowe watched saw how excited the crowd was and a progression in the game was born.

Lowe immediately realized the financial potential for Beano. Upon his return to New York, he created his own version of the game by procuring some beans, cardboard and a rubber number stamp. He then invited friends to his apartment to play the game where he saw the pleasure the game gave that he saw at the carnival. During the game, one player had accidentally yelled out "Bingo" and the name stuck.

It was a priest called Wilkes-Barre from Pennsylvania who began to promote playing bingo in his church community. One the parishioners came up with the idea of using Bingo as a way to raise money for the church. However only 24 unique cards to play with, the priest was finding the big problem that there were far too many winners for each game. The priest contacted Lowe about producing a large number of unique number combinations for the cards. Lowe again recognized the fund-raising potential of the game and enlisted the help of a professor of mathematics at Columbia University called Carl Leffler. Increasing the number of bingo cards was exactly what was needed to make the game a huge success at churches across the country and a sound source of fund-raising came.