The British armed services also kept their versions in the form of the Navy’s tombola and the Army’s housy. The Bingo we are familiar with now had its roots with the American keno of the early 19th Century. The French played it as a game exclusively for wealthy gentlemen in the 1770s, while Germans had their own more educational version aimed at children in the 1800s. European neighbors adopted it and it took different forms.
The origins seemed to be from an Italian Sunday game named ‘Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia’. No wonder Bingo remains to be one of the most popular forms of low-priced gambling in the world.īelieve it or not, records of the earliest form of Bingo played could be traced as far as the 1530s. This is a game that can be played by all: whether during reunions or a day-long event complete with a meal. If you get the lucky paper that lets you string together numbers in rows and/or columns, you win a prize depending on what your host has in store.
The BINGO we have come to know today is a card with a grid of random numbers.