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The development of online bingo has led to a surge in popularity for this traditional and cosmopolitan game. While it is tempting to think that this seemingly most British of pastimes has its roots firmly embedded in our own history, nothing could be further from the truth. From the big bingo halls of today to the websites where you can play <a href="
http://www.bingoliner.co.uk/articles/internet-bingo.aspx">free bingo online</a>, the history of bingo spans both the generations and continents in equal measure, as will be revealed in our bingo timeline!<br />
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<b>1530</b>: What is officially recognised as the first of many lottery and <a href="
http://www.bingoliner.co.uk/articles/bingo-games.aspx">bingo games</a> was formed in Italy: Lo Giuoco del Lotto d’Italia. The game has run almost every week without exception since that time into the present day. Now renamed the <a href="
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8216505.stm">Italian State Lottery</a>, the game contributes $75 million annually to the Italian government.<br />
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<b>1778</b>: Some of the most prominent members of French society were reportedly enamoured of the game Le Lotto. This form of the game was arguably the first to resemble the <a href="
http://www.bingoliner.co.uk/">bingo</a> players and others across the world play on a daily basis in growing numbers. The card was divided into three horizontal and nine vertical rows and the numbers were organised in the same way as on a regular bingo card; the same style that is used when you play either online bingo or in the traditional format today. Numbers were drawn at random by the caller from a cloth bag and the first player to cover a horizontal row of numbers was declared the winner.<br />
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<b>1850</b>: Lotto popularity spread to Germany where keen mathematicians had discovered the game's practical application as a tool to teach children multiplication tables. This educational version of the game quickly became popular, with several variations used to teach children different concepts. Indeed, even to this day bingo is used by teachers in school and also by game manufacturers to educate and appeal to children across the globe.<br />
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<b>1929</b>: Over in the US, toy salesman Edwin S Lowe came across a fair in Jacksonville, Georgia where one carnival booth was packed out with people, all playing a variation of the game Lotto. The game continued until the early hours, when the caller eventually had to chase the people out of his tent to close up for the night. Lowe discovered that the pitchman had seen the game played during his travels in Germany several years earlier and felt that it would translate well to a US audience. The caller called his game Beano after the beans that players used to cover up their card and the shout they would make after they had successfully completed a line.<br />
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On returning home to New York, Lowe bought some dried beans, cardboard and stamps and began to replicate the game in the hope it could bring his fledgling toy company a little good fortune. His friends were called over to try the game and were soon playing it with the same intensity and fervour that Lowe had witnessed in Jacksonville.
During one game a lady friend of Lowe, who had a stutter, was getting increasingly excited as she got close to completing a line on her card. When her final number was called, she tried to shout “Beano!” but alas, became tongue-tied and instead yelled “Bingo!”<br />
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As Lowe so eloquently put it “I cannot describe the strange sense of elation which that girl's cry brought to me. All I could think of was that I was going to come out with this game and it was going to be called bingo!”
<b>1930</b>: Lowe asked mathematician Carl Leffler to help him increase the number of bingo card combinations. Leffler invented 6,000 different bingo cards before reportedly going insane due to the effort required in working out 6,000 unique combinations of numbers.<br />
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<b>1934</b>: Lowe’s bingo game had taken off across the Atlantic so much so that there were now 10,000 games of bingo played each week. By this time, Lowe employed 1,000 people and had 64 printing presses working 24 hours a day to cope with demand for the game.<br />
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<b>1968</b>: The 1968 Gaming Act formalised the game of bingo in the UK, although other forms of gambling games such as Housey-Housey, tombola and lotto were popular since the early 18th century. The act allowed bingo halls, many of which were housed in former cinema buildings, to provide gambling via slot machines, increasing their attraction to bingo players across the country.<br />
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<b>1970 Onwards</b>: The development of Bingo in the UK continued at a pace with new, updated bingo halls becoming increasingly popular leisure venues in towns and cities across the UK. The idea of bingo being a social game began to firmly take hold.<br />
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<b>1986</b>: A national bingo game is legalised and launched in the UK, allowing users from all over the country to play against each other in one massive game, with a suitably large prize fund on offer. The first seeds for an interactive game involving people from all over the country are therefore sown.<br />
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<b>1996</b>: The first online bingo game called Bingo Zone is devised in the US.<br />
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<b>2003</b>: The first fully online UK bingo game is launched. Popularity of bingo online begins to surge markedly as bingo companies and Internet users begin to fully embrace the ease of use of playing bingo online.<br />
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<b>2007</b>: Three million people are reported as being regular bingo players in the UK; 50,000 of whom play regularly online. Research reveals that bingo is now among the most popular leisure activities for women between 20 and 25 years of age. Much of this rise in popularity is attributed to the ease of use of playing online and the improved social function of online sites, which increasingly focus on player interaction as much as providing the mechanics of the game itself.<br />
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<b>2010</b>: While the popularity of bingo continues to grow, how players are choosing to play seems to be changing markedly. Government statistics reveal that there has been a 29 per cent decline in the number of bingo halls in the UK; from 650 in 1997 to 450 in 2010. Despite that, bingo companies are still making sizeable profits, most of which stem from the rapid increase in those choosing to play bingo online.<br />
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So, from its historic past in Italy throughout a journey that has straddled continents, been touched by tragedy and developed with the times, especially in recent history, bingo is a game that truly can appeal to all.
Winning at bingo may not be a certainty but as has been shown over a period that spans nearly 500 years, enjoyment is guaranteed!</p>
