| | |  | Last Updated: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 |  | | | Gambling History: Offline Beano to Online casino Bingo
- Saturday, 26 Aug 2006
Bingo is said to have its roots in Italy, dating back to the year 1530. It was a lottery game called "Lo Giuoco Code Lotto" and was played at county fairs. A caller would be present and had the honor of pulling discs from a cigar box, while players marked their cards. While today our favorite online gambling sites allow us to simply click on a desired number, back then beans were used to cover the numbers called. The winner would rise from his seat and let out a yelping "Beano!". In 1770 the game traveled to France, was awarded the name "Le Lotto" and was played mainly among wealthy Frenchmen.
In 1920, bingo made yet another turning point and crossed the Atlantic Ocean towards the United States, where Edwin Lowe made further changes to the game. While attending a carnival in Atlanta, he noticed how engaged players were in the game of Beano, using their dried beans, rubber stamp and cardboard sheets. He took the gambling game and introduced it in New York using the same format he had observed and received positive feedback to this innovative wonder. Supposedly one of Lowe's players was so excited about winning during one of his beano sessions that he yelled "Bingo" and the name stuck ever since. The increasing popularity of the gambling game convinced Lowe to further develop it and optimize the game's capabilities. By 1930, he produced over 6000 different bingo cards.
Today the game is played in numerous ways with different game strategies. Paper sheets where bingo players use cardboard cards and markers are yet to become a rarity and are actually still pretty popular. Some bingo halls have video bingo machines where the called bingo numbers are automatically posted on the bingo video machine. Online bingo is becoming a popular pastime among all ages and thousands of sites now offer free games while others entice players with cash prizes worth thousands of dollars. | |
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