“Lo Giuoco del Lotto D'Itali”

What do you notice yourself doing every Saturday? Is it going out to a movie, hanging out with friends, or simple catching up on homework? Or maybe it’s different every Saturday. Since the year 1530 Italy has played  “Lo Giuoco del Lotto D'Itali” every Saturday, and to this date a select few still play it. In 1770 the French began to play that game but they called it "Le Lotto". This game was known to be played by the wealthy Frenchmen. In Germany they used the game in a different way, they used it to teach students how to do math, and learn other elements.

Soon enough in 1920 this game came to North America, but yet again the name was called something else to them, it was “beano”. This word probably reminds you of beans, the reason for this is because beans where placed on cards to cover spaces in this game. This game was also very popular among carnivals. Do you know what game I am talking about yet? Well a man by the name of Edwin S. Lowe from New York heard about this game being played all over, he was very interested considering he was a toy salesman.

In 1930 he gave this game another name, he called it “bingo”. Yes, the simple game bingo went threw this much change till it came around to us, but how did it get the name “bingo”. Edwin was sitting around at a carnival watching the game be played, when some one accidentally screamed out BINGO! Instead of “beano”, this gave Edwin the idea to change the name. After he gave it a new name he hired a math professor from the University of Columbia named, Carl Leffler, to help him increase the number of combinations in bingo cards. Carl came up with 6,000 different formations of numbers on the cards.

So “Lo Giuoco del Lotto D'Itali” went from "Le Lotto” to “Beano” then finally to “Bingo”. This invention didn’t really come across any problems, just a lot of interest for the game and modification to improve it. It also changed from how it was used. It Italy it was played every Saturday as a simple game, in France only the wealthy Frenchmen where allowed to take part in the game. As it reached around to Germany they found other ways to use it, such has in there teaching methods. Now it is used here for entertainment at carnivals, nursing homes, and even some churches use it as a way to gain funds for their church. Thanks to Edwin and Carl, bingo has been spread throughout the world.