The French were the first to play with Bingo playing cards, tokens and reading those numbers out loud!
Throughout the 1800s Bingo spread quickly in Europe. Typically, the "Caller" would draw from a bag full of wooden chips numbered from 1-90. Like today, the object of the game was to be the first to cover a horizontal or vertical row.
In 1929, a game called "Beano" was played in a carnival near Atlanta, Georgia. Dried beans, a rubber stamp and a cardboard sheet were all that these Americans need to get their minds off the sting of the Depression.
It wasn't until a New York toy salesman named Edwin Lowe, observed how players shouted the word, "BEANO!!" after winner was the modern game of Bingo born.
Mr. Lowe introduced the game to his friends in New York where one of them mistakenly yelled "BINGO!!" for the first time in her excitement, and "Lowe's Bingo" was soon the talk of NYC. Lowe asked players to pay him $1 per year to allow them to call their games Bingo as well...
By the late 1940s, Bingo games sprung up all over the country with thousands of games being played every week.