History bingo JackpotCity.com

Sat Jun 13, 2009 7:31 pm

■ The game's history can be traced back to 1530, to an Italian lottery called "Lo Giuoco del Lotto D'Italia," which is still played every Saturday in Italy. From Italy the game was introduced to France in the late 1770s, where it was called "Le Lotto", a game played among wealthy Frenchmen. The Germans also played a version of the game in the 1800s, but they used it as a child's game to help students learn math, spelling and history.

■ When the game reached North America in 1929, it became known as "beano". It was first played at a carnival near Atlanta, Georgia. New York toy salesman Edwin S. Lowe renamed it "bingo" after he overheard someone accidentally yell "bingo" instead of "beano". He hired a Columbia University math professor, Carl Leffler, to help him increase the number of combinations in bingo cards. By 1930, Leffler had invented 6,000 different bingo cards.

■ In the UK, the situation was quite different, and the game did not become widely known until 1960, when the Gaming Act passed by Parliament in that year permitted such games in members-only establishments. The following year the game of Bingo was brought over from the USA by Eric Morley, the man who was also responsible for the development of the Miss World competition. Bingo in the UK was a commercial proposition, and so the British bingo archetype was quite different to that found across the Atlantic.

■ Nearly 10 years ago the latest development in British Bingo occurred with the appearance of bingo games you can play at home on the internet.

■ Although online bingo is a recent development in the history of bingo, bingo can be traced back to an Italian Lotto played in 1530. It was not until the 1960’s that bingo became a gaming phenomenon across the world. And now it’s available at JackpotCity.com Online Bingo!