Bingo is not a new game. Its roots are traced back to the Lo Giucco del Lotto D’Italia or Italian National Lottery of 1530. The casino game was extremely popular then and spread throughout the Continent developing into two different versions of the game of bingo. In England, the game is based on ninety numbers and played on a rectangular nine column by three row ticket.
Each of the nine columns corresponds to a range of ten numbers from zero to ninety. The three rows have five numbers in each of the rows with the other spaces left blank. A regular casino is when one line is completed. Special games are two and three lines. The coverall is known as a full house or as housie.
When the game came to America it was played with the numbers being drawn out of a cigar box. The game’s popularity attracted so many players that toy salesman Edwin Lowe studied the game and restructured it. He hired a mathematician to develop unique cards and changed the game so it was based on seventy-five numbers and played on a square five number by five number grid with the letters of the world bingo across the top.
A regular bingo consists of a vertical, horizontal or diagonal line. Sometimes, depending on the house rules, four corners is a regular bingo with special games consisting of patterns. These are the numbers, letters and shapes that can be formed in the grid. Today the game is played on mobile units. |
