Fun Bingo Facts
Bingo is one of the most fascinating, beloved games of all times, adored by all ages, young and old. Played throughout most regions of the world, either in its traditional North American form of 75-Ball Bingo, or the popular European version of 90-Ball Bingo, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone under the age of 6 who has not played a game of Bingo.
In the United Kingdom, Bingo is actually ranked as one of the most popular pastimes among adults. Bingo is played in literally hundreds of Bingo Clubs across the UK, not mention the hundreds of online Bingo sites actively favored by Europeans.
In the United States, Bingo has been an off-and-on fad game since it was discovered and marketed in 1929 by New York toy manufacturer, Edwin Lowe. Bingo is especially popular among church organizations, rated as the number one charitable fund-raising method in North America.
Below, you’ll find a list of other interesting Bingo Facts
1. The game of “Beano” (because it was played with dried beans) was discovered in 1929 by toy manufacturer Edwin Lowe while attending a carnival in Atlanta, Georgia.
2. Lowe renamed the game of Beano to “Bingo” when he invited his friends over to play the game (before production and marketing), and one accidentally exclaimed “Bingo!” upon winning.
3. The origins of Bingo actually date back to 1530 Italy, where it was played in its original form as a Lottery game known as “Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia”.
4. Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia is still played every Saturday in Italy, and makes up a massive portion of the country’s revenue, estimated at $75 million per year.
5. 7.5% of the world’s population loves to play Bingo – 10% of all women and 5% of all men.
6. An estimated 30% of all Bingo fans are actually under the age of 35.
7. Bingo is North America’s number-one source of community fund-raising.
8. In 19th century Germany, Bingo became an educational tool used to help students learn math, science history and spelling.
9. A game called Human Bingo is often used in schools and social situations to help people get to know one another.
10. In North America, the most popular version of Bingo is 75-Ball Bingo.
11. In Europe and Australia, the most popular version of Bingo is 90-Ball Bingo.
12. An average Bingo game lasts from 3-6 minutes, with an additional average of 30 seconds to confirm a winning Bingo.
13. A professional Bingo Caller averages 23 numbers called every minute.
14. In 75-Ball Bingo, there are exactly 1,474,200 possible unique Bingo Card combinations.
15. In 90-Ball Bingo, there are about 552,446,474,061,128,648,601,600,000 possible unique Bingo Card combinations. Unless you’re a mathematician, you’ll probably need help saying that number: five hundred fifty-two septillion, four hundred forty-six sextillion, four hundred seventy-four quintillion, sixty-one quadrillion, one hundred twenty-eight trillion, six hundred forty-eight billion, six hundred one million, six hundred thousand.
16. Currently the most popular form of entertainment in the United Kingdom, more money is spent annually in UK bingo Clubs than on Baseball and Football events combined.
17. If your name is “Joe” or “Magaret”, you should be playing Bingo! Statistics show that males named Joe and females named Margaret win Bingo more often than person’s by any other name.
18. Food for thought –Bingo fans consume 10,000,000 tons of hot beverages, 4,000,000 pints of alcoholic beverages, 130,000 breakfast meals, 15,000 tons of chips, and enough jumbo sausages to stretch 47 miles, every year at UK Bingo Clubs alone.
