It may sometimes feel that online bingo has been around forever, but believe it or not, the game we love to play started off many centuries ago in far away Italy. From its early days as a lottery type game to its boom as the internet bingo played all over the world today, one thing is for sure – bingo is one of the most popular games on the planet!

There are many variations of bingo’s history, but the most likely version estimates that bingo began as a lottery played every Saturday in Italy during the 1700’s. The game was highly popular with the upper and lower classes, and created a fun and vibrant atmosphere which soon saw the game spread across Europe into France in the 1800’s. Here, the game was used as an education tool for children – although adults were often seen playing the game too, especially at markets and fairs. Players could buy bingo cards (although at this point the game was known as Beano, due to the dried beans used to mark cards) and win prizes for filling their cards.

Somewhere in the 1970’s, a toy salesman by the name of Edward Lowe from New York happened to visit a market during a holiday in France. Fascinated by the cheers, he went up to the stall to take a closer look, and was amazed at how excited players were getting as they got closer to getting a Beano win. He was so impressed with the game that he took the idea back to the US with him, and once he was home, he made a simple bingo game set with cards stamped with numbers, and dried beans marked with numbers from one to 75. Once he had completed his game set, he called up some of his friends to invite them over for a few games. Their reaction far exceeded his expectations, and at one point one of his guests got so excited when she won she shouted out ‘Bingo!’ instead of ‘Beano’... and the rest is history!

Lowe realised that he was onto something big, and with the help of a Maths professor who created over 6, 000 possible number combinations, and soon the world’s very first bingo game was developed. Within a few years, bingo had grown into a huge sensation. Bingo halls became the place to be, and games were played at church events and fundraisers all over the world.

With the advance of internet technology, the original game of bingo soon developed into the online bingo game that we know and love – making it even more easy and fun to play bingo then ever!