In common with many popular games, the history of bingo isn’t very clearly set out, and has no definitive set of events that led to its current incarnation. One particular version of the game which is increasingly popular – online bingo – obviously only came about with the rise of the internet from around 1995 onwards.
The true origins of the game, though, are more difficult to discover, so here’s some info about what we can say for certain regarding the history of bingo as we know it today. Starting in the 1500s in Italy, there was a game called Lo Giuoco del Lotto d’Italia, which was a type of lottery.
This game developed through Europe, and evolved in France to make use of the type of playing cards we’re familiar with in modern bingo. It was the Germans who took this a stage further and even used the game for teaching purposes – presumably to teach people about counting and numbers.
In 1920s America, the game of “beano” was played at travelling fairs and carnivals. This was very similar to the European game of bingo, but derived its name from the fact that beans were used for calling the numbers. On winning, one player is thought to have given the game its current name by shouting out “bingo” instead of “beano”.
Travelling back in time to 16th century England, it seems there was a similar game to the one being played in Italy; and there were known to be many illegal lottery-style gambling games being enjoyed by large groups of people in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
At this time, non-state organised lottery games of this type were illegal as the state had its own lottery game in place as a means of raising funds. Obviously, this state lottery was used as the precedent when John Major brought in what we now know as the UK National Lottery in the 1990s.
The early 1900s game of housey housey is one that is an obvious ancestor to today’s bingo. An outside observer, however, may imagine that bingo appeared in Britain as late as the 1960s, which is the so-called “golden age” of bingo, prompted by several changes and amendments to the law which allowed the major bingo hall chains to flourish.
And now we have bingo in its ultimate form, the internet, which brings pleasure and the chance to win real money to millions throughout the country. The success of online bingo has taken many people by surprise, but with its combination of random chance and the ability to utilise lucky numbers, online bingo is here to stay.
Jon Jackson is a bingo specialist, with many years experience of owning and operating internet bingo sites in the UK.