How to play Bingo
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What we know as Bingo is a form of lottery and called a direct descendant of Lo Giuoco del Lotto d’Italia – the Italian National Lottery that was organized about 1530 and is still going strong. The European game of lotto, which had special playing cards with rows of numbers, have a caller who read numbers out loud. Players would cover the number if it appeared on their cards and the first player to complete a horizontal row was deemed the winner.
A man named Ed Lowe saw a version of the game played in Jacksonville, Ga., in 1929. Players were using beans to cover their numbers. The operator of that game related the history of the game to Lowe who, upon his return to his home in New York, refined the game a bit.
Lowe, who owned a toy company, called the game “Beano”, which later evolved into Bingo because of an odd event. One woman playing the game was so excited she yelled out “b-b-bingo” instead of “Beano” when she won. The name stuck.
In 1973, by the way, Lowe sold his company to Milton Bradley for $26 million.
Ever wonder what the largest Bingo game in the nation might be? In 1934 at a Teaneck, NJ armory, 60,00 people showed up to play and 10,000 more had to be turned away.
Playing the game
Once you get there, you go to the Bingo cashier and buy your Bingo cards. Understand first that there are different prices for your cards. You can play for as little as $3 a session. The more expensive the card the more your payoff will be.
If you’re wondering what the odds are of filling up a card in the Bingo coverall game when only 50 numbers or less are drawn, it’s 799, 398 with 48 numbers; 407, 856 with 49 numbers and only 212, 085 with 50 numbers.
With 60 numbers, your chances are one in 715; with 59 numbers, one chance in 1,191.