The term Bingo was derived from a game called ‘Beano’. The game of Beano was first made up in the United States of America. It was a game, where the numbered chips are drawn out of a box by the dealer.
The reason behind calling the game ‘beano’ is that the players marked the numbers on the cards with beans. When a person gets the correct patterns, he shouts ‘Beano’. Even though Beano was started in the United States, the game of Bingo can be traced back to ‘Lo Giuoco Lotto Italia’, an Italian game. This game then was open up to many places in Europe like Germany and France.
Beano, in the year 1929 started in North America at a street party in Atlanta. The reason behind it turning from Beano to Bingo is very funny. A salesman, Edwin Lowe heard a Beano player shout Bingo by mistake. Then the salesman thought the word bingo seems better than Beano and can be better for advertising purposes. This is how Beano turned to Bingo.
Edwin sold his first product of 12 cards for $1 and sold 24 cards for $2. But, there were many winners in every game that is played. Then he thought increasing the count of the squares on the card would be a good idea. Edwin started to search out for a partner and met a maths professor named Carl Leffler.
Edwin discussed his thought with Leffler. Leffler decided to help Edwin with his project. Leffler worked on all the mathematical possibilities and finally came up with 6000 different bingo cards for manufacture. When the game was ready to be produced, a priest asked Edwin if he can use the game in the churches to increase the funds.
Edwin agreed and this way it became very popular in a very short time. Today, about $90 million are just spent in North America every week to play bingo games. |