The world has a new pastime. And it goes something like this. You have a few numbers written on cards (Bingo cards, to use the jargon) in your hand. There is another person who will rattle off numbers arbitrarily and you have to tick off the corresponding numbers in your numbered cards. You do this till you have marked numbers in a particular order and then you say "Bingo". You win. Bingo. Yes, this is the name of the game that has taken the world by storm.



Bingo has quite an ancient lineage. Its predecessor is the Lotto, or "Lo Giuoco del Lotto D'Italia", a game that originated in Italy in 1530. From Italy, this game spread further to France in the late 1770s, where it caught the fancy of the wealthy class.









The Germans practiced a different form of the game. For them, more than a pastime, Lotto was an educational tool, designed to impart training mathematics, history and spelling to kids.



The modern form of Bingo had its moorings in North America in 1929 and was then known as "beano". It was re-christened "Bingo" by a New York-based toy salesman Edwin S. Lowe, who then solicited the help of Columbia University mathematics professor, Carl Leffler to increase the number of combinations in the bingo cards. That is, Leffler introduced greater degrees of complexities to the game, much to the delight of the Bingo enthusiasts.



A very easy game to play, Bingo has quite an eclectic clientele. In fact, unknown to many, Bingo was actually popularized by the church, where the game brought in funds by the bagful. The game is played in the casinos, but unlike its casino counterparts, there are no bets on the game.



Bingo happens to be one of the most popular games on the Internet, with dedicated and ever-increasing Bingo gaming communities regularly pitting against each other and taking part in jackpot contests by the droves. In fact, the Internet is swarming with Bingo web sites, both free and paid.



And outside the virtual world, there are Bingo societies that organize free games within and between various communities. Once relegated as a game of old maids, Bingo now enjoys soaring popularity and to quote statistics, there are an estimated 60-million Bingo players all around the world today.



The roulette, the lottery and the poker share a few gaming similarities with Bingo. But the legions of Bingo devotees are just making sure that the game rises head and shoulders above the field in terms of popularity.

By: Gordon Jacobs

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Gordon Jacobs is a successful writer and publisher of bingo related issues,
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