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Online Bingo – A Brief History of how it all started

Playing bingo online is rapidly gaining popularity and recent estimates have revealed that a staggering 3.4 million people play bingo on their computers every year. This includes men and women from all walks of life and of hugely varying ages.

That's not at all bad considering that the game started off as a kind of lottery in Italy as far back as 1530. Known as 'Lo Giuoco del Lotto D'Italia', it is still played weekly in Italy today. The game was then introduced to a French audience in the latter part of the 1770s. Known here as 'Le Lotto', it was typically only played by wealthy French men.

In Germany, another version of this game started to be used to help children to learn spelling, maths and history in the 1800s. In 11929, the game made it to North America. Here it was called Beano to begin with, and it was played at fairs and carnivals.

Dealers would draw numbers from boxes and punters would mark their Beano cards with beans and shout Beano when they won. The game was renamed into Bingo when E.S. Lowe, a toy salesman from New York, overheard someone accidentally shouting Bingo instead of the usual Beano.

He subsequently hired a maths professor, C. Leffler, to assist him with creating greater numbers of combinations on the cards. By the following year, 1930, Leffler had created a staggering 6000 different cards for Bingo. Rumour has it he went insane after this.

After a priest asked Lowe for permission to play Bingo in his Pennsylvania church to raise funds, popularity shot through the roof. By 1934, around 10,000 games were played every week in churches and other venues across the country.

This goes to show that Bingo has indeed been around for a very long time - centuries, in fact - but it certainly has come a long way since then. In the past, Bingo 'happened' once a week; provided a bit of entertainment and the chance to win a little something and generally gave an opportunity to make and meet friends.

Online bingo is still offering exactly that, but with even more fun, excitement and lots of different game variations. It is also much more convenient for individuals to play whenever they have the time. Today's busy lifestyles often make it difficult to be away from home for a whole evening, so playing Bingo online with 24/7 access makes life much easier.

In addition, sites like BingoSky, BingoHall, BingoForMoney, or SouthBeachBingo, in addition to WinkBingo and BingoStreet, TastyBingo or RedBusBingo; not to forget InstantBingo, CyberBingo, PoshBingo or InternetBingo, BingoFabulous, VicsBingo and BingoFest, for example, all offer players the chance to play free Bingo and still win cash prizes.

Another incentive these sites offer is found in the excellent Bingo bonuses offered on first deposits. These offers make it possible for players to get lots of winning chances with very little outlay.