History of Bingo
The amazing history of bingo dates back to its first appearance in the early 1800s. Bingo is a direct descendent of lottery-type games who's roots can be traced to Europe circa 1530, when the Italian state ran the game of Lo Giuoco del Lotto.
Over the years, a derivative of that game spread through the whole of
Originally the horizontal rows contained 5 numbered squares and 4 blank spaces. As in today's game, the objective of the game was to cross out a horizontal row or vertical column. All blank spaces were marked as "free", similar to our current game, and the player needed to have the 5 numbered squares called.Each player would be given a unique card and waited in anticipation for the caller to draw numbers from a bag. The bag contained wooden chips which were numbered from 1-90.
Bingo as we now play it manifested out of the desperate times of the Great Depression and was an immediate success with Americans looking for a distraction from the hardships of life. As bingo's fundraising potential was realized by churches, fire stations and various other groups, Bingo grew and spread from coast to coast rapidly. By the mid 1930s, thousands of Bingo games were played weekly and the game ended up as the beloved pastime for numerous players.New Jersey legalized the game in the 1950s and New York followed suit in 1959. As other states understood the popularity of bingo, the game became unstoppable and everyone seems to be playing.
With other countries looking for lucrative sources of revenue, bingo has attracted the attention of countless neighboring countries. For this reason in addition to the games broad popularity, it did not take long for these countries to jump onto the bingo bandwagon.
