So how did Bingo start? In the United States it started as Beano. It could usually be found at county fair and boardwalks. The caller, as they are known today, would draw random numbers from a box of some sort, usually a cigar box. Paying customers would then cover numbers on cards with beans. If a player won, they would shout Beano to signify they had a straight line bingo. However bingo started first in Italy in 1530 as, Lo Giuoco del Lotto D'Italia, this means Italian Bingo. This game is still played every Saturday.

After Italy, bingo spread to France in about 1770. Here bingo was and still is called “Le Lotto”. It France, it was usually played as a gentleman's sport by wealthy men. After seeing the success in Italy and France, Germany decided to use the game as a way to teach children lessons on math, spelling, and history. They would use a different version of the game with words or phrases, instead of numbers for spelling and history. This version was a huge success since children found it fun.

When bingo came to the United States in 1929, the version Beano was played in Atlanta, Georgia. One fateful day, a failing toy salesman, Edwin Lowe, was watching a carnival game and saw an opportunity before him.

Lowe went home to tell his friends and family about the game. He started hosting games using small cardboard cards and rubber stamps. One of his friends go so excited during a win they yelled “Bingo” when he should have yelled Beano. Lowe was so excited about the term, the New York native renamed it bingo. He decide to start selling the game in two ways: you could pay one dollar for 12 cards or two dollars for 24 cards. Later on, he hired a math professor from Columbia University, to help increase the number of number sequences on the cards. They came up with over 6,000 different cards. It is said the professor then went insane.

Later, a Catholic Priest asked Lowe if bingo could be used as a means to raise money for the church. After Lowe gave his consent, bingo spread across the states. As bingo became a hit and people asked Lowe if they could host games, Lowe only made two requirements. If you wanted to host games, you had to pay a dollar a year and of course call the game bingo. Over 10,000 bingo games were played per week by estimate in 1934. Today it is estimated that the bingo industry has over 90 million sales per week in the US today.

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