National Bingo Month
 Cartoon Fun & History
by
Brownielocks and The 3 Bears
Bingo Service, Inc.
(Wink!)

 

 

We now offer our own Brownielocks Blank Bingo Cards for you!

All About Bingo 
The cards

History of Bingo

The Italians are credited with being the inventors of Bingo!  No, the name doesn't mean anything in Italian.  Actually, the game was first called "Lo Giuoco del Lotto  D' Italia."  From Italy, it went to France in the late 1770's and they shortened the name to "Le Lotto" and played strictly among the wealthy French aristocrats.  In the 1880's the Germans then developed their version of Bingo as an educational game for children to help learn math, spelling and history.

The game reached the US ( from which European country it is uncertain) during the depression and was first played at a carnival in Atlanta, Georgia.    At that time, the game was being called "Beano" because beans were used to mark the squares called on the cards.  A toy salesman from New York, named Edwin S. Lowe, changed the name of the game   when he heard a player miss-yell it as "Bingo" and not Beano.   The carnival version (drawing numbers from a cigar box and covering cards with beans) remained popular after the carnival left town.  Many people were playing Bingo by having a caller pull numbered disks out of a cigar boxes, bowls, or any other secure container and placing their beans on the appropriate number.  During the carnival, the prize was a Kewpie doll.  Afterwards, it usually was money.

 Mr. Lowe, seeing how popular Beano was,  decided to market the game under the miss-yelled name  he heard  "Bingo."  He hired a Columbia University math professor named Carl Leffler to help increase his sales by increasing the number of cards made.  By 1930, Professor Leffler invented over 6,000 different bingo card numerical variations.  (It is said that he later went insane in his life!)  

 

Bingo is considered a game of chance, like any rolling of dice game or lottery.  And because you spend money buying your cards (regardless if the prize is money or an item) to take a chance to win, it is considered gambling.  As with all chance games, there also comes the risk of addiction for some.  And, as such, there also comes the condemnation by some religious groups that it is a game of sin.  The irony of this is, Bingo first became a game as a motive to help raise money by a Catholic priest from Pennsylvania who approached Mr. Lowe.  When Bingo became a church fund-raising event, it energized its popularity among the population and sales increased. Thus, the church first used it as a fund-raiser and in many Catholic churches Bingo still is the main church fund-raising event.

By 1934 an estimated 10,000 bingo games were played weekly, even after the depression ended and the temptation of gaining sudden wealth wasn't as strong.  Today, Bingo is estimated to be a weekly $90 million spending in just North America.  

 

During both World War I and World War II (1939 - 1945) Bingo was a popular game among the troops.  In particular, the British servicemen during long voyages to the Far East would a version of Bingo called "Housey-Housey."

 

Today, there remains debates and lawsuits on the criminal nature of Bingo, if it's really gambling, the ages of who should play and the controls of it on Indian Reservations in the US.   Many feel whenever there is money + chance that's gambling. Bingo is a popular form of gambling that many feel is difficult to cheat at (unlike other gambling games) and is in some areas a high stakes serious game.

The game today not only brings in money for the clubs and organizations that host it, but for the bingo commercial market as well.   First there are those who print out cards. Through the years, they have grown from simple cards with beans or disks,  to sliding markers  or shutters to move , to today's  throw-away paper cards that you dab with a marker or blotter (some call it "dobbing" a combination  word of dabbing + blotting) of many colors.  And then we can play Bingo on-line via the internet, which has raised even more problems when it comes to some players  being underage.    There is also the Bingo commercial market of good luck charms, bingo accessories, jewelry,  figurines, t-shirts, bumper stickers, carry-alls, seat cushions and who knows what else.

Bingo games bring a variety of people together for a fun, social evening. And, they are mostly popular among the elderly because there is no real physical activity involved besides sitting at a table.  In many smaller clubs they have a "snack" committee that brings something each week for the group.  Other clubs are much too large to have a hometown closeness.  However, nerves are  often strained as one important number might wait and wait to be called.  And jealousies occur when two players vie for the same winning game and wait for their special numbers!

 

How to Play Bingo!

 

Players are given (or buy) a bingo card with a variable number arrangement as we showed you above.  Some games allow a player to play with more than one card, but will put a limit on the maximum number of cards per person.  A caller is the person who draws the bingo numbers.  As we said earlier, originally they were numbered disks drawn from a cigar box.  Throughout  the years, drawing the bingo numbers were done in a variety of ways.   In some cases there were two drawings, one for the letter and one for the number.  (This caused problems with too many invalid calls. For example, a caller could draw a "B" and then "68". And "B" only goes to 15, so this call doesn't exist.) Soon, both the letter and number appeared on the disks or balls.   Mixing them up varied from game host to game host.  Today, we all know about the plastic, hollow, lightweight bouncing bingo balls that  are tossed with air and twirled inside a metal cage until the "caller" takes his hand and draws one out.    If a Bingo club can't afford an air-shuffling machine, then the balls are usually tossed in a wire cage and twirled with a handle (on the outside) by the caller as many revolutions as he chooses until he decides to pull a ball out.  These balls are random and considered fair. In some serious gaming houses, a computer randomly generates a bingo number and it's displayed on a large screen besides being yelled. Some challenge the fairness of a computer doing it and claim that the computers can be programmed.

Once a ball is called, keeping tract all depends on the Bingo club's rules. Some display a lighted screen for everyone in the room to see.  Many callers have an assistant that keeps the called balls in a large wooden bin or holder to easily know what's been drawn so far in case someone miss-hears or doesn't hear very well.  And  also so that the ball can't be accidentally re-put into the cage and recalled again messing up the  drawing ratio for the other  remaining balls.

Balls are called until a winner is declared.  Winners are determined by the type of game that the caller stated it was before he started the game.

Before a game begins, the caller will declare if it's a regular bingo game, or some special type.  The caller will also determine the prize for the game, whether it's an item such as a free bicycle or prize money.  In some Bingo clubs, some games are "accumulative" until there is a winner.  For example, a club could have a game in which a winner must have 4 corners in the first four balls called.  If not, the prize money is added to next week's game.  Therefore, if a game is for $50 and there is no winner, then next week the prize is $100  and so on until a winner is declared.  Often, if a game hasn't been won in weeks and has grown to be a large prize, many people who do not usually play Bingo will show up to play that night.  

How to Win?

Every Bingo club has it's own style of game and even special slang for a game win.  Below are  8 of the most common  types of wins in Bingo games.

 

There are many Bingo books written on various strategies and views of what the odds are on what numbers get called more than others.  Other people just go by lucky chances and feel no numbers are better than others.  Whether you are a serious weekly Bingo player or an occasional one, Bingo is now a very popular social event in the United States, as well as a high-income finance for some Bingo hosting areas.  Some statistics claim that there are over 6 million avid Bingo fans in the US alone.  With prize money (per game) often reaching into the thousands of dollars.

One such lucky winner was Thayo Seipel, who won $10,000 at the McGuire Air Force Base on March 29.  Her card cost $5 and she won a progressive game that did not have a winner in 6 years. 

Many American Indian Reservations are now Bingo Houses with some having very high stakes games.   There's been much debate in their local state governments (and even the US) about how to regulate this.  Rather than get even more wordy here, click on the link below to read some of the official legal documents regarding Bingo on Indian Reservations.

And if you're feeling lucky and are getting the urge to play some Bingo, well I'm sure there's a game somewhere in your town.   For me, I helped out with the Volunteer Fire Dept.'s Sunday Bingo games for a while.  But many churches, VFW or other local clubs also host Bingo games.  If you can't find any, then there's always Bingo on the internet.  

Bingo in Navajo used by permission from Terry Teller's site.Much thanks.

GOOD LUCK!

Make Your Own Bingo Games!

 

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