When you are settling into your next exciting session of online bingo at site like winkbingo, spare a thought for the very earliest bingo players.
Your game may be as easy as tapping a screen while relaxing on the sofa. But around 500 years ago the players of the first games of bingo had to wait while the numbers were drawn laboriously from a stack of cards.
Then the players had to mark the selected number off their early version of a bingo card – probably with a quill or a knife. And they usually played it outside, standing at a street corner.
Makes your smartphone or laptop bingo game seem very easy and convenient doesn’t it?
The history of bingo
Gaming historians have traced bingo’s earliest ancestor to the Italian lottery game called ‘Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia,’ which was first established way back in 1530.
That’s back in the days of sailing galleons and sword fights. No-one could have conceived of the internet back then.
This early game involved drawing numbers like lots and the players marking their cards to match the drawn numbers.
It was primarily a social event and was designed to help raise funds for the government of the city-state of Florence.
Italy was divided into separate city-states in that era so the game was devised to increase the amount available for public projects in Florence, like the construction of buildings, bridges, and roads. It worked essentially like a state-run lottery today.
Players would purchase their tickets which featured a grid of numbers. The numbers on these cards were usually selected from a pool of 90 numbers – similar to modern bingo’s 75 or 90-ball variations.
They would mark their cards as the numbers were drawn, and the goal was to match the drawn numbers to complete a predetermined pattern, just like the bingo cards used today.
Lotto quickly gained popularity in Florence and became something of a social event. People from the difference social classes would gather together on street corners to play the game, making it a communal activity that brought everyone together to have fun.
Amazingly, Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia is still played 500 years later in Italy today. That makes it one of the longest-running games in the world.
Visitors to Italy still see the numbers displayed on street corners. However, the Lotto has evolved over the centuries of course and is now run by the Italian government much like a conventional national lottery.
The evolution of bingo
The origins of Lotto highlight how bingo’s history is rooted in community engagement, fundraising – and the eternal excitement of a simple game of chance.
These elements were there in Florence – and laid the foundation for the modern game of bingo as we know it today.
The actual evolution from Florence’s Lotto to bingo was a little more involved – and it developed in both France and Germany before heading to America with immigrants.
In the early 20th century the game was gaining ground in America but was called Beano – because players used beans to mark their cards. It was a fun event that was commonly played at carnivals and fairs.
The modernization of bingo is credited to Edwin S. Lowe, a New York toy salesman. He first encountered the game at a carnival in 1929.
Seeing its potential, Lowe had a vision of how to popularise beano. He set out to introduce it to a wider audience.
Legend says that Lowe renamed it Bingo after a player accidentally yelled ‘Bingo’ instead of ‘Beano’ in the excitement of winning.
By the mid-20th century, bingo had grown across the US. It was increasingly recognized as a form of legal gambling in various American states.
Regulations were gradually put in place to ensure fair play and prevent fraud. And as it grew in popularity in America, bingo soon started spreading to other countries too.
Since then bingo has evolved with time, adapting to different formats and ways of playing.
The old-school traditional bingo halls remain popular, but online and electronic versions have become even more prevalent.
The online bingo world has grown rapidly, confounding those who doubted that bingo would work in the digital age.
The classic game of chance has now become accessible to a global audience. Bingo is available on your mobile device 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Bingo has transformed from a simple lottery-style game into a social and recreational activity enjoyed by millions of people of all ages worldwide. Its rich history and adaptability have actually contributed to its enduring popularity.
And thanks to the growth of online bingo the game is now more popular than it has ever been – and experts say it is likely to keep growing.
