The true origin of bingo dates back as far as the mid 16th century and is connected, strangely enough to the unification of Italy in 1530. This unification saw the introduction of a National lottery system, known as "Lo Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia" held each week. Interestingly, this lottery is today a major source of income to the government, contributing over 75 million dollars each year to the budget.
It was the French who developed a passion for "Le Lotto", as it became known and they adapted their own version of the game that strikes a strong resemblance with today's version of bingo. Three horizontal and nine vertical rows formed the basis of the card and players would cover their numbers as they were drawn until an entire horizontal row was covered - hence the winner.
Lotto continued to flourish throughout Europe. It was used as an educational tool in Germany to teach children their multiplication tables and even formed the basis of many other games and toys still noticeable in toy stores today. But where and when did Lotto somehow morph into Bingo? Well, the answer lies in what could be described as a compromise - Beano!
Picture the scene. It's 1929 and a weary and stressed toy salesman by the name of Edwin S. Lowe is driving to Jacksonville, Georgia to prepare for some appointments. Soon after starting his own toy company a year earlier, the market crashed and Mr Lowe's prospects were looking very bleak indeed.
Before arriving in Jacksonville, Lowe decided to cheer himself up by stopping off at a country carnival, being a night early for his appointments. Only one carnival booth was open and very crowded. The excitement seemed to be generated by a game that was a variation of Lotto, known as Beano. A horseshoe table was covered with numbered cards and beans. Every time a pitchman pulled a wooden disk from an old cigar box and called the number on it, the players reached for a bean and covered the corresponding number on their card, if they had it. When they had totally covered a line, either diagonally, vertically or horizontally, they had to shout Beano! They then received a doll.
Lowe wanted to play, but the game was too popular and no seats were available. What he did notice though was that all the players seemed to be addicted to the game. The pitchman was not able to close and had to eventually chase the players away at 3:00am. The pitchman had apparently picked the game of Lotto in Germany and decided to adapt and bring it to the United States and to rename it Beano. The success of the game on the carnival circuit proved to be highly lucrative.
Back in New York, Lowe invited some friends to his apartment and introduced them to the game. The tension seemed palpable. One time, a player became close to winning and was getting more and more excited. When her final number was called she jumped up in a fit of ecstasy and in all her excitement got herself tongue-tied. Instead of shouting Beano she spat out "Bingo!" Lowe would later describe the "sense of elation" he experienced when he heard her cry. He knew from that moment he was going to introduce this game to the public and name it "Bingo".
What a success it proved to be for Lowe and his company! As the game came out of the public domain it was hard for it to be trademarked. Entreponeurs emerged from all sides and began their own versions. Lowe graciously asked them to pay just one dollar a year and call their games "Bingo" as well. To avoid litigation, this seemed a small price to pay and hence the massive spread and popular interest in bingo.
Lowe became aware of the fundraising possibilities of bingo after he was approached by a parishioner who wanted to use the game to raise funds. However, there seemed to be a problem when he discovered that each game tended to produce at least a half a dozen winners. Lowe knew that in order for bingo to succeed and a larger scale he needed to develop a greater number of combinations for his cards. So he approached a mathematics professor at Columbia University by the name of Carl Leffler. Lowe wanted 6,000 new cards with different combinations. The professor agreed. What he may not have conceptualised was how much harder each card became to develop than the card before. The fee per card rose to $100 and the task was finally completed, much to Lowe's delight and at a cost to the professor of his sanity! (Or so many people have speculated).
After that, bingo really began to take off. People started to approach Lowe in droves, asking him to help them develop bingo games. Newsletters and even a book were published. The stakes and prizes got higher and pretty soon bingo took its place in popular American culture along with sports and other forms of gambling and general entertainment.
About The Author
John C. Thorenssen is professional gambler and work as consultant in Royal Club Casino New York. He wrote articles about gambling and gambling strategies. Most of the articles will be included in his new book.
Online Bingo - www.OnlineBingo.co.uk - Your bingo resource
Friday, September 24, 2010
Bingo History: Story of the Game Bingo
The origins of contemporary bingo go back to 16th century Italy, where the lottery game Lo Giuoco del Lotto dItalia was introduced. The popular chance game was introduced to North America in the late 1920s by the name of Beano. A toy salesperson of New York was responsible for changing the name of the game into Bingo and to the increase of its popularity throughout the US.
In the late 18th century, the original Italian lotto game made its way to France. Historical evidence shows that a game called Le Lotto was popular among the French high society who used to play the game in parties and social gatherings.
Le Lotto used to be played with special cards that were divided into three rows and nine columns. Each of the three columns consists of 10 numbers, while each column had five random number and four blank spaces in it. Each player had a different lotto card where he used to mark the number announced by the caller. The first player to cover one row won the game.
By the 19th century, the lotto game spread around Europe and started to serve as a didactic childrens game. In the 1850s, several educational lotto games had entered the German toys market. The lotto games purpose was to teach children how to spell words, how to multiply numbers, etc.
By 1920s, a similar version to the lotto game, known as beano was popular at county fairs throughout the US. In beano, the players placed beans on their cards to mark the called out number. The first player who completed a full row on his card, used to yell out Beano!, until one night in December 1929, when a New Yorker toys salesperson by the name of Edwin S. Lowe visited a country fair outside Jacksonville, Georgia.
On his way back to New York, Lowe had purchased beano equipment including dried beans, a rubber numbering stamp and cardboard. At his New York home, Lowe has been hosting friendly beano games. During one game, one excited winner who had managed to complete a full row stuttered out Bingo, instead of Beano. Listening to the excited stuttering girl, Edwin S. Lowe thoughts went away. Lowe decided to develop a new game that would be called Bingo.
While Lowe's Bingo game was making its first steps in the market, a Pennsylvanian priest asked Lowe to use the game for charity purpose. After a short tryout period, the priest had found out that the bingo game causes the churches to lose money. Since the variety of bingo cards was limited, each bingo game ended up in more than five winners.
In order to develop the game and to lower the probabilities of winning, Lowe approached Prof. Carl Leffler, a mathematician from Columbia University. Leffler was asked to create bigger variety of bingo cards that each of them will have unique combination of numbers. By 1930, Lowe had 6,000 bingo cards and Prof. Leffler went insane.
Since then, the popularity of the bingo game as a fundraiser continued to grow. In less than five years, about 10,000 weekly bingo games took place throughout North America. Lowe's company grew to employ several thousands of employees and to occupy more than 60 presses 24 hours a day.
Now, bingo is one of the most popular chance games in the world. It is played in churches, schools, local bingo halls and land based casinos in the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the world.
Sharon Gerad is an expert in American popular culture. She writes articles for the online casinos portal, which provides information on bingo [http://www.gambling-portal.com/bingo.html] ,poker,and other casino games.
In the late 18th century, the original Italian lotto game made its way to France. Historical evidence shows that a game called Le Lotto was popular among the French high society who used to play the game in parties and social gatherings.
Le Lotto used to be played with special cards that were divided into three rows and nine columns. Each of the three columns consists of 10 numbers, while each column had five random number and four blank spaces in it. Each player had a different lotto card where he used to mark the number announced by the caller. The first player to cover one row won the game.
By the 19th century, the lotto game spread around Europe and started to serve as a didactic childrens game. In the 1850s, several educational lotto games had entered the German toys market. The lotto games purpose was to teach children how to spell words, how to multiply numbers, etc.
By 1920s, a similar version to the lotto game, known as beano was popular at county fairs throughout the US. In beano, the players placed beans on their cards to mark the called out number. The first player who completed a full row on his card, used to yell out Beano!, until one night in December 1929, when a New Yorker toys salesperson by the name of Edwin S. Lowe visited a country fair outside Jacksonville, Georgia.
On his way back to New York, Lowe had purchased beano equipment including dried beans, a rubber numbering stamp and cardboard. At his New York home, Lowe has been hosting friendly beano games. During one game, one excited winner who had managed to complete a full row stuttered out Bingo, instead of Beano. Listening to the excited stuttering girl, Edwin S. Lowe thoughts went away. Lowe decided to develop a new game that would be called Bingo.
While Lowe's Bingo game was making its first steps in the market, a Pennsylvanian priest asked Lowe to use the game for charity purpose. After a short tryout period, the priest had found out that the bingo game causes the churches to lose money. Since the variety of bingo cards was limited, each bingo game ended up in more than five winners.
In order to develop the game and to lower the probabilities of winning, Lowe approached Prof. Carl Leffler, a mathematician from Columbia University. Leffler was asked to create bigger variety of bingo cards that each of them will have unique combination of numbers. By 1930, Lowe had 6,000 bingo cards and Prof. Leffler went insane.
Since then, the popularity of the bingo game as a fundraiser continued to grow. In less than five years, about 10,000 weekly bingo games took place throughout North America. Lowe's company grew to employ several thousands of employees and to occupy more than 60 presses 24 hours a day.
Now, bingo is one of the most popular chance games in the world. It is played in churches, schools, local bingo halls and land based casinos in the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the world.
Sharon Gerad is an expert in American popular culture. She writes articles for the online casinos portal, which provides information on bingo [http://www.gambling-portal.com/bingo.html] ,poker,and other casino games.
Popular Online Casino Games - Keno, Bingo, Lotto
Keno, bingo, and lotto are three popular online casino games that rely on luck.
Keno is similar to state lottery games in that you choose numbers and find out if any of the numbers you chose match numbers drawn, with various payouts based on the number of matches you have. With keno, numbers are drawn all the time, so there are far more opportunities to win or lose. Web casino versions of keno are even more fast-paced than land casino versions of the games, but the odds with online keno are slightly better than with live keno.
To play, you pick up to 10 numbers between 1 and 80 that you think will be drawn. You place bets on each number, and await the outcome, which is near-instantaneous in online keno. Since keno is a game of pure chance, there's not a real strategy that can help you win. However, smaller bets, like five number bets, though they don't have the cachet of larger number bets, are often more profitable to online keno players over the long term because they tend to result in more payouts, and are cheaper to make, so your bankroll usually lasts longer.
Online bingo is very similar to land bingo. You should choose your cards based on the number of players and the total payout, as well as the regularity of big prize winnings. You should also play free bingo for a while to learn the ropes and see what online bingo is like before playing for money. Many online bingo games make it hard to win the top prizes, where you match all the numbers on your card. If fewer than 40 numbers are drawn, you'll have virtually no chance of matching all your card numbers. If 60 or more numbers are drawn, then your odds improve significantly.
Some online bingo sites will do the "daubing" for you, and some will offer the option of calling bingo for you. If this is true, you basically don't have to do anything except wait for the numbers to be called. But if you are not on one of these sites, keep an eye on your cards. If you wait too long to call bingo, your winnings may be split between more people, lowering your take.
Online lotto games are based on lottery games that have been around since ancient times. You can buy lottery tickets online for games based in other countries. In some cases you can buy multiple lottery tickets in bulk for a lower cost per ticket than if you bought each ticket individually. Plus, the more tickets you buy, the better your odds. In the US, some states allow the purchase of lottery tickets online, including Powerball tickets, which can have enormous payouts.
Keno, Bingo, and Lotto are all popular online games. Played in online casinos, they are games of chance that are extremely easy to learn and participate in.
Play Bingo or keno at online casinos, you can also play many other games at casinos online.
Keno is similar to state lottery games in that you choose numbers and find out if any of the numbers you chose match numbers drawn, with various payouts based on the number of matches you have. With keno, numbers are drawn all the time, so there are far more opportunities to win or lose. Web casino versions of keno are even more fast-paced than land casino versions of the games, but the odds with online keno are slightly better than with live keno.
To play, you pick up to 10 numbers between 1 and 80 that you think will be drawn. You place bets on each number, and await the outcome, which is near-instantaneous in online keno. Since keno is a game of pure chance, there's not a real strategy that can help you win. However, smaller bets, like five number bets, though they don't have the cachet of larger number bets, are often more profitable to online keno players over the long term because they tend to result in more payouts, and are cheaper to make, so your bankroll usually lasts longer.
Online bingo is very similar to land bingo. You should choose your cards based on the number of players and the total payout, as well as the regularity of big prize winnings. You should also play free bingo for a while to learn the ropes and see what online bingo is like before playing for money. Many online bingo games make it hard to win the top prizes, where you match all the numbers on your card. If fewer than 40 numbers are drawn, you'll have virtually no chance of matching all your card numbers. If 60 or more numbers are drawn, then your odds improve significantly.
Some online bingo sites will do the "daubing" for you, and some will offer the option of calling bingo for you. If this is true, you basically don't have to do anything except wait for the numbers to be called. But if you are not on one of these sites, keep an eye on your cards. If you wait too long to call bingo, your winnings may be split between more people, lowering your take.
Online lotto games are based on lottery games that have been around since ancient times. You can buy lottery tickets online for games based in other countries. In some cases you can buy multiple lottery tickets in bulk for a lower cost per ticket than if you bought each ticket individually. Plus, the more tickets you buy, the better your odds. In the US, some states allow the purchase of lottery tickets online, including Powerball tickets, which can have enormous payouts.
Keno, Bingo, and Lotto are all popular online games. Played in online casinos, they are games of chance that are extremely easy to learn and participate in.
Play Bingo or keno at online casinos, you can also play many other games at casinos online.
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