The game proved immensely successful, and by the mid 1930s it’s estimated that some 10,000 bingo games were being played every week. A few years later, in 1933, he released an official rule book, setting global standards for how the game should be played. Working alongside a maths professor – Carl Leffler, at Columbia University – Lowe built a game with 6,000 different card combinations, copyrighting the word “bingo” the following year. Lowe, however, that really bridged the gap between old beano and today’s bingo after he saw the game being played at a carnival in 1929. Ward’s Beano operated in a similar fashion to le Lotto – and the first player who managed to complete their card stood up, loudly (and proudly) shouting “beano!”. Ward – an American, travelling Europe – took note of the game’s structure with the intention of bringing it to carnivals in the US.īack then, Ward called the game Beano – a term that was coined as a result of the dried beans that were being used as markers on the game boards. It was almost a century later, in 1920, that bingo as we know it really started to take form, when one Hugh J. American Carnivals: The Unlikely Birth of Bingo Using a tombola-like format, the game was designed to help children improve their math and spelling abilities – to debatable levels of success.

This variation of the game proved popular, and it soon made its way to Germany, where academics saw educational potential in the game. The first player who managed to cover a horizontal line of numbers was declared the winner. This modified variation of the game used a game card – much like those used in today’s bingo – and during the game, wooden chips were pulled from a drum. In the 17th century, the then-bingo was known more commonly as Le Lotto. The player who picked the most correct numbers was declared the winner. Some experts, however, believe bingo’s origins can be traced back as far as the days of the Roman Empire!īack then, however, the game took a slightly different format players picked from a set of numbers, with another set drawn from a drum. Why Bingo Halls Are Still Popular Todayīingo can, in some form, be traced back as far as 1530, when literature vaguely refers to a lottery called Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia.” Roughly translated as “the game of lotto in Italy”, this is the first real sign of bingo – and it was traditionally played on a Sunday.American Carnivals: The Unlikely Birth of Bingo.

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