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Tracking Back the Roots of Bingo

The game of bingo is so popularly known around the globe that it carries a rich history of its beginning. Let us trace the roots of this interesting and simple game.

The European Origin The history of bingo began in Italy.The Italians must have the due credit for inventing the game of Bingo as they came up with this kind of game in the 16th century. The Italians then were looking for ways to make money aand raise funds for their government. In order to increase their revenues, they were able to come up with a kind of lottry game called Lo Giucco del Lotto D'Italia, a sort of a bingo game which get their winners in the national lottery. Years passed and the history of bingo flourished when the neighboring countries noticed that this form of lottery game used by the Italians is very effective to raising funds for their government, so later on these countries adopted their own version of the game. In France the history of bingo started out when it was the very first to use its own version of Lo Giucco del Lotto D'Italia in the late 1700s and called it Le Lotto. However, this kind of game is exclusively played by the upper class of their society purely rich French men and it is also being played exclusively by males. Females were strictly prohibited from playing this lottery game.

The history of bingo then spread from Italy to the north, when Germany adopted this game as a fun aid in their schools during the year 1880s. The Germans derived the game of bingo as a tool in teaching their kids certain subjects, especially in mathematics. Over the succeeding decades, the history of bingo took its form from Germany and France to other European countries

Though the history of bingo had flourished in these countries, and in so many kinds of variations, still this game has no unified structure and was not even called bingo during those times. However, in 1929, an American toy salesman named Edwin Lowe had been traveling in the U.S. getting his merchandise from different kinds of businesses. Edwin decided to stop in a Georgia county fair and noticed some people playing a game with a card and some beans. These players will put a bean on their card when a number is called out and the winner will shout "Beano" if he made a definite pattern.

Somehow, a winner mistakenly shouted "bingo" at the time when Edwin Lowe was in the tent where the game was being held. Seeing the fun and excitement in the game though he was not able to join in any of its rounds when the tent closed, he made his own version opf the game and called it "bingo". It became an instant hit to his customers, selling his bingo game for $1.00.

Hence the history of the real bingo game flourished in the United States as Edwin Lowe laid the foundations of what it is today. He had brought bingo forward from the backwoods carnival game in America to a profitable industry that benefited millions over the years.