Bingo History

In the early sixteenth century, the game of Bingo was first established. In Italy, the earliest version of Bingo games wasplayed every week and the name of that game was "Lo Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia". This concept of Bingo travelled all the way to America’s Atlanta in the early twentieth century and the name of the game was then "Beano". Edwin Lowe was the first person who spotted the immense popularity of this game among the revellers and then started promoting the game all through America. It was in New York that the game got its present name, viz. Bingo. In the early form of Bingo, the game was played with the help of 12 and 24 cards. By 1940, the game of Bingo has become immensely popular across the world, especially in UK and mostly among women.

In UK, the game of Bingo first started becoming popular during the reign of Charles II. However, it’s origin in United Kingdom can be dated back to 1558. During the Charles II regime, Bingo got a huge boost and it started becoming immensely popular among UK women. People started playing Bingo games in their leisure hours and the monarchy also dived into the bandwagon and started a national state lottery so that the government income can be increased. However, these games used to be costly for poor people to enjoy. This led to cropping up of illegal lotteries that were well within the reach of poor and they also started enjoying these lotteries, the earliest forms of Bingo.

In order to keep away poor people from gambling, government banned all types of cash betting. The year was 1906. At that time Bingo used to be known as ‘Tombola’ and was also used by many as a fundraising tool. However, many charities considered it to be a close version of the illegal Bingo betting games and were thus avoided by them for charitable purposes.

From 1900 to 1906, illegal betting activities took an upturn and surveys showed that it was the women who were playing these illegal games on a regular basis. However, the concern was that the profits made out of these illegal gambling activities were being channelized to fund criminal activities.

Bingo was first legalised to become a commercial game in the year 1960 with the enactment of "Betting and Gambling Act", 1960. This led to the surge in tax revenue of the nation as from now on government was able to monitor as well as collect taxes from the legalised Bingo games. Legalised Bingo gaming not only led to increased revenue generation of the government but also led to loosening clutch of the criminals and underworld on Bingo gaming. From this time onward, commercial enterprises running Bingo halls startedincreasing. However, the criminal activities surrounding Bingo games could not be eradicated. In the year 1968, “Gaming Bill” was introduced to get a better control over Bingo gaming activities.

Bingo first became a universal game when online Bingo was introduced. This helped Bingo aficionados to enjoy their favourite Bingo games, right from the comfort of their house or office at leisure time. This is the Bingo history in a nutshell.