A beginner’s guide to playing bingo
May 3, 2007
When someone says the word “bingo”, what do you think about? Personally I think of two things. The first one is the song “bingo”. You know the one I am talking about, the one with the dog, “and bingo was his name-o”. The second thing I think about is my grandma and her bingo sessions. To be brutally honest I never really cared much about bingo halls and nor did I care for all those old people playing bingo. But when I stumbled across online bingo, I became hooked. Online bingo offers all the pleasures of the game with none of the drawbacks:
- Exciting game play;
- The possibility to chat with the other players;
- Luck of the draw;
- Good chances of winning fabulous prizes.
Bingo’s Beginnings
The origins of bingo can be traced to the 1500s, in Italy. The Italian National Lottery is believed to be the game that spawned bingo as we know it today.
In 1929 the game found its way to the United States. The game was called “beano” and it was regularly played at carnivals. The game was played by placing beans on the numbers, hence the name beano.
Edwin Lowe played an important part in bingo’s history. He became fascinated with the game. He created a home made version and started holding bingo nights at his house. The name bingo came about as an accident. One night a beano player at Lowe’s home won, but instead of saying beano the player said bingo. Lowe then marketed the game under the name bingo.
The Ins and Outs of the Game
In order to play bingo you must first purchase a bingo card. If you want you can play more than one card, it is all up to you. Each bingo card is nothing more than a 5×5 grid. There are 5 columns and each column is marked by one of the letters that make up the word bingo. Under each letter there are 5 numbers. You must mark the numbers as they are called out and the goal is to mark all the numbers. Simply call out bingo after you have marked all the numbers.
Cheating at bingo is practically impossible. This is because there are around 6,000 to 9,000 card combinations. These card combinations were set up by a mathematician, who went insane after completing this challenging job.
Note that bingo is a fast paced game and you must always be focused. You should pay attention to the caller and make sure not to miss any number that is called out. After all, surely you do not want to miss your chance if winning the jackpot.
Online Bingo
Traditional bingo was a big hit the first time it was played. It enjoyed a wide spread popularity all over the world. People flocked to the bingo halls for a chance of playing the game.
Nowadays we can play bingo from the comfort of our own homes. Simply go online and start playing. Online bingo halls are active, busy places. The game is exciting and entertaining at the same time. Not to mention that you can chat with other players while the game takes place thanks to the chat feature. You could never do that in a land based bingo hall. Everyone around you would be shushing an looking at you funny.
There was a time when bingo was the game of choice for small scale charity events, school fund raisers, or old people. Online bingo is played by millions of people all over the world, young and old alike.
