Bingo History

A trendy game called “bingo” has started to hit the market at carnivals and local state fairs all over America. People all over the country are surprisingly very addicted to this silly little game. It reached the U.S. in December of 1929, but it did not originate here (“Bellis”). The first recorded sign of bingo was in the 1530s in Italy. The base name of bingo was called “Lo Guioco del Lotto D’Italia,” and it meant playing a game in the form of gambling. It became more and more popular in Italy. The game was so popular that every Saturday, Italy sets up games to play in tradition of the ancient game. Now in America, bingo is played even more frequently (“Bellis”). The individual who came across the game and released it to public America was Edward Lowe. Lowe was a small time toy maker who sold to kids at carnivals and county fairs. His business only consisted of two employees and a $1000 budget. Unfortunately, after the market crashed, so did his company. One day, Lowe traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to try and sell what he had remaining of his toy supply, when he came across a closed county fair late at night. He saw …show more content…
He saw the potential of success in business for this so called “beano” game. Soon after the night at the tent, Lowe made his own beano cards and his own chips. He charged admission fees to play the game at carnivals he set up at, and his money came back to him (“Bellis”). The game was called “beano” in the U.S. just because of the use of beans as markers for the numbers that were called. One day, when Lowe was dealing for the game, a woman was so excited to shout beano that she stumbled and ended up saying “bingo” instead. Lowe didn’t know what it was, but he just knew that this game had to be called bingo. From that point on the game was known as bingo, and Lowe is still making just as much money today than he was the first day he created