US Bingo History

In US bingo history, bingo started out as a carnival attraction. Originally known as “beano” in the United States, the game was played with dried beans, a rubber number stamp and cardboard sheets.

The transformation of beano into bingo by New York toy salesman, Edwin S. Lowe, was followed by a huge surge in the popularity of the game. This had a lot to do with a clever marketing strategy on the part of Lowe. The license to play his trademarked game, “bingo”, cost only one dollar a year.

Bingo Fundraising

By the early twentieth century, bingo was being played throughout the American Midwest. By the 1940s, bingo had become so popular that thousands and thousands of games were played all over the United States, as well as in Canada, every week. Bingo was played mostly as part of church fundraising efforts and to raise funds for charities. This means of fundraising still takes place today in bingo halls all over America. Most of the games were and are still played in churches and civic gathering spaces rather than in betting halls.

Bingo Gambling

In US bingo history, bingo gambling started only in the 1970s on American Indian reservations, where gambling laws didn’t prevent players from winning high-value prizes. Bingo on the reserves developed into a way of raising funds for Native American Indians, both through direct fundraising and by creating a large number of jobs. Today, Native American bingo establishments have payoffs of up to $100,000 and more.

Elsewhere, bingo gambling in the United States was confined mostly to casinos in the state of Nevada.

US Online Bingo

The most recent development in US bingo history is the growth of online bingo. Today, more than $90 million is spent solely on online bingo in North America alone. There are more than a thousand US online Bingo sites.

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