Interesting Bingo Facts To Know Before You Play Your Next Game

Most people will have played a bingo game at least once in their lives.

The game is pretty straightforward with its rules and people across all age groups find it enjoyable. Now that we have established the popularity of the game, do we know how it originated?

Bingo is a well-known game, and technology has revived and made the online bingo game popular once more. More and more online bingo sites and apps are popping out, and they are offering a huge number of prizes to attract players. Since the game is always adapting and changing, there are facts about the game that you should be aware of.

Read this article to know more about the best way to play bingo game. Afterward, also check Japan children games and facts about video games.

Fun Facts About Bingo

Bingo wasn’t always called 'bingo'. It was previously called beano because of the fact that people used beans to cover up their numbers.

The game might have started from a carnival in America, but now there are dedicated bingo halls that regularly host bingo games and are quite popular. Edwin S. Lowe, who renamed the game bingo, hired a math professor from Columbia University to help him increase the number of combinations called during playing bingo cards. By the year 1930, the math professor, Carl Leffler, invented 6,000 different bingo cards, this certainly made the game more interesting.

Bingo cards used in the US are different from the UK. US bingo cards are squares of five units, while the cards used in the UK have three rows and nine columns. Number combinations also differ in these two places. US bingo cards have numbers between 1-75, but the cards used in the UK have combinations and patterns going up to the number 90. Not only that, but all the numbers up to 90 in the UK have nicknames too that the players are supposed to know by heart for winning.

Facts About Bingo's Origin

The origin of this addictive game is traced back to Italy in 1530, where it was played as a lottery called Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia. Till now, it is played every Saturday in Italy.

The game was then picked up by the Frenchmen in the latter part of the 1770s. It was called Le Lotto in French and was only played among the richest of the people of the country France. The Germans also adopted this game and made up a version of their own in the 1800s, but instead of entertainment for the wealthiest, it was used to help children learn math, spelling, and history.

In 1929, the game reached the land of North America, popularly known as beano. It was later renamed bingo by Edwin S. Lowe after he heard someone loudly shout bingo instead of beano. In the American version, which was started in a country fair game, a dealer would randomly select numbered discs from a cigar box and players would mark the cards given to them using their beans. The player who called bingo first won the game.

Facts About Bingo's Rules

During a game of bingo, players are handed bingo cards with numbers. There is one bingo caller who calls out random numbers, and if the number also appears on the player’s card then they mark their cards.

The player that gets a full row first shouts Bingo. While most versions require just a single completed line to win the game, some people change the rules so that whoever completes their entire card first wins. Sometimes there are also cash and prizes at the end of the game to raise the stakes and to keep people more engaged.

Sometimes people get too excited and call out bingo even before they have completed the rules of the game. To make sure that it doesn’t happen, their cards are checked. After that, they are free to collect their jackpot prize!

Statistical Facts About Bingo

It is believed that prior to COVID-19, Americans spent over $90 million on bingo cards per week. More than the anticipation towards the prizes, the game was played just for fun. The survey tells us that an average bingo player is 35 years years old.

With the rise in popularity of online bingo games, even younger people are joining in on the fun. Do you know which number is thought to be the luckiest in bingo? The number six! And it is among the top ten most called bingo numbers too. Other numbers on the list include 4, 42, 62, 52, 51, 64, 81, 5, and 47. Poor number 13 is considered unlucky even here and remains the least called number in this game. Find out the nearest bingo hall or log on to an online bingo site and try out your luck in the fascinating world of the bingo game.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for interesting bingo facts then why not take a look at Russian games for kids, or ancient Egypt games for kids.