Bingo History

Have you ever wondered how this popular game got started? Well the history of bingo is an interesting tale believe it or not it dates all the way back to the 1500's and the country of origin was Italy. It quickly became a lottery game all over Europe and the German's used a version of it to become a child's game for learning math and other subjects. The French played bingo as a lottery game for aristocrats.

When Bingo made its way to the United States in the 1920's it was called beano because beans were used to mark the cards, until someone accidently yelled bingo then it seemed like a much better name.

Edwin Lowe and Carl Leffler are credited as the founding fathers of todays bingo game and redeveloping the game and making up 6000 different number variations for the cards.

It became the game of bingo that we all know and love today when a parishioner from a church in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. who was having some difficulties with raising funds, so therefore the idea to use bingo as a fund-raiser was founded. Bingo was first legalized in the 1950's in of New York and New Jersey, and today takes in more than three billion dollars a year, a very socially correct and legal way to gamble.