From beano to bingo
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| The hall bingo - home of luck, laughter and fortune - is a popular feature in many British towns. It is our answer to the casino: it is a pleasure palace where anything and everything can happen if your numbers come up. The story of bingo itself goes pretty far back - even the Romans used to play a different version of the game. The Italians developed it in the sixteenth century and it moved across Europe, it was played mainly in wealthy circles. In 1929 when it reached US shores as "Beano" the game really took off. Edwin Lowe produced proper bingo cards and brought bingo to the masses, who all loved the game. It was in the 1960's however that the British bingo halls came into its own. |
Bingo makes it big
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| The Gaming Act of 1960 meant that betting games could only be played in members-only in establishments. The following year Eric Morley, of Miss World fame, began to promote and popularise bingo across the UK. Also, the popularity of television meant that many theatres, cinemas and dancehalls were sitting empty. It was a master stroke to use these locations for bingo - it instantly giving the game an air of glamour and fun.
The new bingo halls were very luxurious and dramatic, rather than just simply pull balls from a bag, they installed glass cabinets filled with big numbered balls. The calling itself became a key feature, with phrases such as "two fat ladies" that became famous entering the vocabulary . By the 1980's many purpose-built bingo halls had sprung all over across the UK. |
Ten things you didn't know about bingo...
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- More than 3 million people regularly play bingo around the UK.
- There are 688 bingo clubs in Great Britain, pulling over £1.1billion annually.
- 8% of the world's population play bingo.
- The total weekly pay-out on the National Bingo Game is more than £1 million.
- In the 1800's a Lotto game similar to Bingo was used as an educational program to teach young German children multiplication tables.
- Physical exercise tone's up the body, but the game of bingo enhances the player's mental speed, observation skill and memory.
- Bing Crosby's was nicknamed "Bingo" as a child.
- Screeno, a form of bingo, was played in movie theatres during the depression.
- 96 percent of bingo players have won at some point while playing bingo in their life times.
- There are a unique 1,474,200 bingo cards possible.
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