Bingo’s a game that has entertained generations of people all around the world. Yet it’s a really simple game of chance – what is it about bingo that makes us all keep coming back for more?
There have been different versions of games that have bingo elements for centuries, but the game we are all familiar with today dates back from the 1930s when an entrepreneur called Edwin Lowe witnessed a game of ‘beano’ being played at a country fair. Players in the game had a card with a selection of numbers printed on it. As the caller shouted out different numbers, players covered the corresponding numbers on their cards with a dried bean. The first person to cover all their numbers shouted ‘beano’ and won the prize. One woman got so excited at the prospect of winning that she shouted ‘bingo’ by accident.
Lowe saw how popular the game was and decided to patent his own version – naming it ‘bingo’. He then charged a licence fee for organisations such as churches who wanted to use bingo as a fundraiser. The game’s popularity spread really quickly and it wasn’t long before the game made it over to Europe.
Right the way through the rest of the twentieth century bingo remained a popular game; especially as a way of bringing different communities together for a fundraiser. However, with the advent of national lotteries, it looked at one time as if bingo’s popularity would suffer. The thing that really turned the future of bingo around, though, was its transition to becoming an online game.
The first online bingo sites appeared in the late 1990s, but since then the online bingo industry has exploded with new bingo sites being introduced all the time. As competition for new customers is so intense between different bingo operators, there are always some great welcome bonuses to take advantage of. Many sites will match the first amount a player puts down as a deposit, and others will give much more than that to woo new customers to join their site.
The fact that you can play bingo online at any time of the night or day is one reason why more than 100 million people worldwide now are registered online bingo players. It’s the sheer convenience of being able to play a game that is fun and simple, yet still might win you a significant cash prize, that makes the game so appealing.
When you play a game of bingo, there’s very little thought or decision-making required on the part of the player, so it’s a great game to unwind with. You might play it while you’re having a coffee break, or at the end of a night out when you’re not quite ready to go to bed. For many players, an extra advantage of playing online rather than at a bingo hall is that you can chat while you play. In fact, you’re positively encouraged to, with a bingo game taking you through to the chat room that the game is linked to, where you can meet with other players and share each other’s company. It’s this social element that really has cemented bingo’s popularity as an online game. It offers its players so much more than many other solo player games that are available online.
With the constant introduction of new games to the bingo sites and new ways of playing being developed, it wouldn’t be surprising to see bingo becoming even more popular in the future.
