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Have you ever wondered where the name “Bingo” originated from, or why it is that we come to call the game we all love to play by this name? The origin of bingo seems to pose a classic question, (when and where did it begin?), what we do know is that way back in 1566, Queen Elizabeth sponsored the first ever British lottery to help raise money for the defence of our country and by the time (James 1) succeeded her to the throne, lotteries were the back bone of finance within London as they financed everything from public works, to private corporations.
Over the years “lotto” became very fashionable throughout Europe and it has also been said that modern bingo games as we know then today, also originated from the 16th century in Italy. Florence was the first city to run a state lottery know as “La Lotto De Fienze” and this was the first lotto of its kind to award cash prizes. This was based around city names that contained five words, and is thought to be the first step towards the development of the game bingo as we know it today.
A theory of where the actual word “Bingo” came from, is that a lady from Atlanta Georgia, yelled out “Bingo” when winning a game and history was made. Another theory was that bells were placed on tables for players to ring if they won and as the bell sounded like the word “Bing” the winner would also yell the word “bing” when they won, which then progressed to “Bingo”! One more theory that I have heard over the years was that a woman was playing the game of Beano and instead of shouting “Beano” when she won, she shouted “Bingo” and the name stuck!
Unfortunately there is no clear winner of exactly where and when the name bingo come about, but whenever you hear the name today, you associate it with someone winning a prize. Bingo really took off in England back in the 1960’s, when lots of disused cinemas and theaters were took over by bingo clubs after TV hit our homes in a big way, making these buildings somewhat redundant!
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