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The history of Bingo
The Early Roots
Bingo as it is today is a form of lottery. Lottery being something that
is regarded as a chance event - the random pulling of numbers to match
a set of numbers on a ticket.
Bingo is believed to be a direct descendant
of Lo Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia. When Italy was united in 1530, the
Italian National Lottery Lo Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia was organized,
and has been held, almost without pause, at weekly intervals to this
date. Today the Italian State lottery is indispensable to the government's
budget, with a yearly contribution in excess of 75 million dollars.
In 1778 it was reported in the French press that Le Lotto had captured
the fancy of the intelligentsia. In the classic version of Lotto, which
developed during this period, the playing card used in the game was divided
into three horizontal and nine vertical rows. Each horizontal row had
five numbered and four blank squares in a random arrangement. The
vertical rows
contained numbers from 1 to 10 in the first row, 11 to 20 in the second
row, et cetera, up to 90. No two Lotto cards were alike. Chips numbered
from 1 to 90 completed the playing equipment. Players were dealt a single
Lotto card, then the caller would draw a small wooden, numbered token
from a cloth boag and read the number aloud. The players would cover
the number
if it appeared on their card. The first player to cover a horizontal
row was the winner.
Educational bingo
In the 1800's educational Lotto games became popular.
A German Lotto game of the 1850s was designed to teach children their
multiplication
tables.
There were other educational Lotto games such as 'Spelling Lotto,' 'Animal
Lotto,' and 'Historical Lotto." Even in today's highly competitive toy
and game market, Lotto is holding its own; Milton Bradley sells a Lotto
game featuring the Sesame Street Muppets. The game is designed to provide
children in the 3 to 6 year age range with a splash of fun while, at
the same time, teaching them to count and recognize numbers.
Work bingo
There are other versions of bingo you can make yourself - Got a
boring meeting ahead? Create a sheet with words on that you'll expect
to hear - all the industry buzz words that are so cliched, and mark
them off as you hear them. This can be a great aid to staying awake
through boring presentations and meetings.
Beano
It was an evening in December of 1929 when a very tired New York
toy salesman, Edwin S. Lowe, decided to drive on to Jacksonville,
Georgia
so that he
might have an early start for his next day's appointments. The year
before, with two employees and $1,000 capital, Lowe had set up his
own toy company.
Soon after, the market crashed and the outlook for his budding firm
looked bleak indeed.
A few miles from Jacksonville, Lowe came around a bend in the road
and was greeted by the bright lights of a country carnival. he was
ahead
of schedule, so he parked his car and got out. All of the carnival
booths were closed except one, which was packed with people. Lowe stood
on tiptoes
and peered over the shoulders of the participants. The action centered
on a horseshoe shaped table covered with numbered cards and beans.
The game being played was a variation of Lotto called Beano. The pitchman,
or caller, pulled small numbered wooden disks from an old cigar box
and,
at the same time, called the number aloud. The players responded by
eagerly checking their card to see if they had the number called; if
so, they
would
place a bean on the number. This sequence continued until some someone
filled a line of numbers on their card - either horizontally, vertically
or diagonally. This feat was marked by the shout of "Beano!" The winner
received a small Kewpie doll.
Ed Lowe tried to play Beano that night, but, he recalls, "I couldn't get
a seat. But while I was waiting around, I noticed that the players were
practically addicted to the game. The picthman wanted to close up, but
every time he said, "This is the last game', nobody moved. When he finally
closed at 3:00 a.m. he had to chase them out."
After locking up, the pitchman told Lowe that he had run across a game
called Lotto while traveling with a carnival in Germany the previous
year. His immediate thought was that it would make a good tent or carnival
game.
He made a few changes in its play, and a change of the name to Beano.
The game proved to be such a surefire crowd pleaser and money maker
that on
his return to the United States, he continued to work the game on the
Carnival circuit.
Bingo
Returning to his home in New York, Lowe bought some dried beans, a
rubber numbering stamp and some cardboard. Friends were invited to
his apartment
and Ed Lowe assumed the pitchman's duties. Soon his friends were playing
Beano with the same tension and excitement as he had seen at the carnival.
During one session Lowe noticed that one of his players was close to
winning. She got more excited as each bean was added to her card. Finally
there
was one number left - and it was called! The woman jumped up, became
tongue tied, and instead of shouting "Beano," stuttered "B-B-B-BINGO!"
"
I cannot describe the strange sense of elation which that girl's cry brought
to me," Lowe said. "All I could think of was that I was going to come out
with this game, and it was going to be called Bingo!"
The earliest Lowe Bingo game in two variations - a twelve card sert
for one dollar and a two dollar set with twenty-four cards. The game
was
an immediate success and put Lowe's company squarely on its feet.
Although the name Bingo could very well have been trademarked, the
game itself, having come out of the public domain, had little chance
of being
protected. Imitators came out of the woodwork once the success of Lowe's
game was evident. Lowe was very gracious about the whole affair. He
asked his competitors to pay him a dollar a year, and to call their
games Bingo,
too. A small price to pay to avoid litigation - and this the name became
generic.
Bingo Cards and Insane Mathamaticians
Several months after Bingo hit the market, Lowe was approached by a
priest from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The Father had a problem in
his parish.
A fast thinking parishoner had come up with the idea of using Bingo
as a way to get the church out of its financial troubles. The priest
had
put the scheme into operation after having bought several sets of Lowe's
$2.00
Bingo game. However, problems developed immediately when it was found
that each game produced half a dozen or more winners. Lowe could immediately
see the tremendous fund raising possibilities of Bingo, but at the
same time, he realized that to make the game workable on this large
of a scale,
a great many more combinations of numbers would have to be developed
for
the cards. To accomplish this, Lowe sought the services of an elderly
professor of mathematics at Columbia University, one Carl Leffler.
Lowe's request
was the the professor devise 6,000 new Bingo cards with non repeating
number groups. The professor agreed to a fee that remunerated him on
a per card
basis. As the professor worked on, each card became increasingly difficult.
Lowe was impatient, and toward the end the price per card had risen
to $100. Eventually, the task was completed. The E.S. Lowe Company
had its
6,000 cards - at the expense of the professor's sanity!
The church of Wilkes-Barre was saved and after it, a Knights of Columbus
Hall in Utica, New York. Word spread fast - "I used to get thousands of
letters asking for help on setting up Bingo games, "said Lowe - so many
that he published Bingo's first Instructional Manual. This effort was followed
by a monthly news letter called The Blotter (absorbs all Bingo news) which
was distributed to 37,000 subscribers. By 1934 there were an estimated
10,000 Bingo games a week, and Ed Lowe's firm had a thousand employees
frantically trying to keep up with demand - nune entire floors of the New
York office space, and 64 presses printing 24 hours a day - "... we used
more newsprint than the New York Times!" According to Lowe, the largest
Bingo game in history was played in New York's Teaneck Armory - 60,000
players, with another 10,000 being turned away at the door. Ten automobiles
were given away. Bingo was off to a fast start, and at the same time, had
reserved itself next to baseball and apple pie - thanks to Ed Lowe and
the loss of Professor Leffler's sanity.
In the UK there is
a Bingo Association which has gathered the following information:
A few Facts and Figures about the Industry
There are 688 licensed bingo clubs operating in the UK (as of 31st
March 2002)
Figures for 2001 show an estimated total market of around 85 million
admissions
In 2001, £246 million was paid to the Exchequer in duty and VAT
Estimated total industry pre-tax profit for 2001 was £149 million.
The average customer spends £18-22 on a night at bingo (making
no allowance for winnings). This includes bingo tickets, VAT and Duty,
other gaming, food and drink.
Over £999 million was paid out in prizes in 2001 in licensed
bingo clubs.
Bingo is the only gambling activity where women are more likely to
play than men. 70% of bingo players are women, and 30% are men. Overall,
10% of all women play compared to only 5% of men.
Bingo playing is spread evenly across all age categories, with the
average age of players being under 50.
This potted history of Bingo is adapted from others found on the
net and we're trying to track down its source. We've added to this history
with some useful snippets we've found.
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