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The popular game of bingo that we all know and love from the bingo halls to its more recent online incarnation has a long and colourful history, spanning several centuries. Here, we’ll take a look at where the game came from and how it grew to become the modern derivative that we all know and enjoy today.

Bingo’s roots actually go way back to the 16th century Italy, as the game closely resembles a form of lottery that was played back in those days. Following the unification of the country form its several separate kingdoms in 1530, a centrally appointed government introduced the first national lottery game, called “Lo Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia.” The game is still played today, with a new draw being made every week and is probably the longest running of all nationally run gambling institutions in the world. Almost 500 years since the original lottery was introduced, the 21st century incarnation of that lottery is a mainstay of the Italian economy, generating the equivalent of over $75 million annually in state revenue.

The original game spread throughout Europe and by the 18th century had developed into the classic Lotto that is more familiar to us now. The French saw its popularity grow especially amongst the wealthy and prosperous and by the 19th century a variation of bingo had gained popularity in Germany, although not as a gambling game, but an educational one. It was used to teach both math and spelling to school pupils.

It is said that travelling carnival workers migrating from Europe brought a version of the game to America in the early part of the 20th century. In 1929, a toy salesman from New York, Edwin Lowe, while visiting Atlanta chanced upon a travelling carnival where he found workers playing a game they called beano. This was a game that used cardboard sheets and a rubber stamp to make the cards and dried beans to cover the numbers as they were drawn by the game’s organiser.

Lowe was fascinated by the game and noted how engrossed in the action the players had become. It was obvious to him that the players were all hooked and he saw the great potential for making money. When he returned to New York, Edwin Lowe went about purchasing the same items he’d seen the carnival workers using and then invited some friends round to his apartment in order to test his theories. With rubber stamped cards and dried beans for markers, they played beano and were soon engrossed in the game. Again, Lowe noted the enthusiasm and fervour with which the participants played the game. In fact one of the women playing the game became so agitated when she had only one number left to complete her card and all the wrong numbers were being called out that when her number finally did come up, she jumped out of her seat and shouted “b-b-bingo!”

Bingo as it was now dubbed soon caught on as an addictive form of entertainment, but it was a Catholic priest who first introduced bingo as a way of raising church funds. As his church in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania was becoming ever more in need of refurbishment and cash was tight, a member of his congregation suggested making use of bingo to raise the much needed funds. From this innocent suggestion came the first true expansion of the game. With its initial restrictive 24 card variations and more and more people wanting to play, it soon became evident that several identical winning cards were being distributed, resulting in too many winners.

This set the wheels in motion for an increase in the number of permutations a bingo card could have. The priest enlisted the assistance of professor of mathematics, Carl Leffler of Columbia University, who managed to generate over 6,000 unique permutations of the card to ensure that there would not be two winning tickets issued at any one game. This increase was an essential improvement on the game and ushered it in as a sweeping success in such honourable pursuits as find-raising for churches, schools, orphanages as well as many other good causes.

By 1934, such was the interest in the game that somewhere in the region of ten thousand games of bingo were being played weekly in North America alone, from a diverse cross section of the population from church groups, civic groups, groups of Native Americans on reservations and people from all walks of life.

Today, bingo has easily become a highly popular form of gambling entertainment. Players in North America spend on average $90 million each week on bingo alone. With the latest online versions of the game now similarly growing in popularity for their simplicity and potential large payouts, bingo looks set to become a similarly popular online casino game right up there with keno, video slots and roulette.