Why do we play bingo? That is simple: to win! Bingo can be traced back thousands of years and is a keystone of our gambling culture. Centuries before we were even born, an Italian game, popular in the 1500's, was generating a massive amount of success. This game is unrecognisable compared to modern Bingo games yet share the same themes of matching numbers for a successful win. In the US, Bingo evolved from a country fair game called ?Beano?, which involved cigar boxes with numbered discs inside of them. The cards were marked with beans and ?beano? was yelled if there was a match. The Germans also had their own version of Bingo, but it was used as an educational tool, teaching children maths and spelling, which is sadly no fun at all if the impact of winning money is removed. How did these names develop into the common name of Bingo?



A toy salesman from New York, Edwin S. Lowe renamed it Bingo after hearing a ?beano? player shout Bingo purely by accident. With this novel name and a thirst for better Bingo gaming ideas, Edwin hired a maths professor to increase the number of bingo card variations. The card varieties numbered over six thousand in the end and it was said the inventor of these variations went insane.

Soon after the groundwork had been worked out, Lowe was approached by priests who were looking to raise church funds with small stakes gambling games. We all know that Bingo games and church fund raisers go well together and the rest, as they say is history. Church fund-raising today, in the US alone has rocketed to over one-hundred million dollars every week. It is these ?heavenly? connotations which make Bingo so appealing, especially to the older generation.

Welcome to the world of modern Bingo. Gone are the thoughts of blue-haired old women gambling away their pension money, and in are the countless millions of websites competing for Bingo dominance. The standard online Bingo game works as such: A small application is downloaded [this is usually free] and an account is set up in order to keep your credit card details secure. Bingo is without-a-doubt one of the simplest games to play and the online version is no different. Once your game has been set up and your account funded with loads of lovely money, you can chat to other players, enter Bingo rooms and play to your heart's content. Or at the very least, until your credit card dries up.

Thanks to the many security updates and graphical interfaces, Online Bingo games have become the hottest commodity on the internet. Your details are kept safe and secure, plus your eyes are massaged with the very latest interface options, guaranteed to keep you playing all night long. The forecast is that Online Bingo will grow to one billion US dollars by the year 2010. Many Bingo players mention their favourite part of online Bingo being the enjoyment of taking part in a global community, whereby their interactions with others greatly increases the overall pleasure of playing their beloved game.

What does the future hold for Bingo? Already we have seen the creation of mobile bingo games, which let you play bingo anywhere and additionally, on the move. The phone is now your bingo card, with live chats happening in your hand and money being won in an instant. The UK and the US are both home to most of the flourishing bingo sites, but like an uncontainable entity; it grows ever-hungry and determined to conquer all. Know you know why we play bingo. It is because we love it so!