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"B-I-N-G-O"… BINGO!!!

"Bingo!" - That's the yell you will probably hear if you are to attend a Bingo game, or be an avid player of this game.

Being that this is an enjoyable and interesting game, it's good for us to have knowledge about the origin of the game and know some interesting facts that you may not have heard before.

This game originates way back in 1530, from an Italian lottery called "Lo Giuoci del Lotto D'Italia," which is played in Italy every Saturday. In late 1778, the game was introduced in France where it is addressed as "Le Lotto", a game played by wealthy Frenchmen. During 1800s, the Germans also played a version of this game, but they treated this like a child's game in order to assist the students in their math, spelling and history subjects.

It was 1929 when the game reached North America and became known as "beano". The game was played at a carnival near Atlanta, Georgia. This ws treated as a fair game, where the dealer chose numbered discs from a cigar box, and they used beans to mark their cards. Every time they won the game, they yelled "beano". Someone accidentally shouted "bingo" instead of "beano" - that led to the New York salesman Edwin S. Lowe rename the game Bingo. He even hired a mathematician, Carl Leffler (a professor from Columbia University) to lend him a hand just to increase the number of bingo card combinations. It was 1930, when Leffler invented 6,000 varied bingo cards. There is also a rumor that Leffler became insane after doing this.

One of the Catholic Priests in Pennsylvania even used Bingo as a means of raising church funds. Since the game started to be played in churches, it became even more popular.

In 1934, 10,000 bingo games were played weekly, and today there are more than $90 million dollars spent just to play this game weekly, in North America alone.

Bingo is even played online through the Internet. You may try this, if you wish. Here are some Bingo Online Facts:

•A large number of European people play Bingo. About 80% are women, and 20% are men.

•The average checking time is 30 seconds to declare a win.

•It takes four and four and a half minutes to play an average game of Bingo.

*Catherine Zeta Jones and Robbie Williams are famous celebrities who are avid fans of Bingo.

•The first to play Bingo cards were the Italians.

•In the 20th century, "Housie" is what they called the game in Austria instead of "Bingo". •Since dried beans were used instead of balls, it was first called "Beano" before its name evolved to "Bingo".

•One of the main documented reasons for playing Bingo is to make friends and to socialize.