Ward copyrighted the names 'Beano' and 'Bingo', and wrote the game's first rulebook in 1933, but a man called Edwin Lowe is credited with popularizing it. In Ward's version of the game, a dealer would pick numbered discs from a cigar box, and players would mark their cards with beans. No one is sure of the origin of the name, although some have speculated that it may relate to the 'bing' sound a bell makes when rung. Ward's version of the game was called 'Beano' because it used dried beans as markers, although the name 'Bingo' is thought to have existed since at least the 1770s in Great Britain. Ward standardized the game at carnivals around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the early 1920s. Similar games, such as 'road trip bingo' and 'zoo animal bingo' are still played today.Ī man named Hugh J. In these versions of the game, the squares featured words, pictures, or unsolved math problems, instead of numbers. In Germany during the nineteenth century, bingo was played as a way of helping children learn math, spelling and history.

This ultimately led to the design of today's bingo cards.Ī similar game named 'Housey-Housey' was played in Great Britain, and until quite recently 'Housey Housey' or 'Housie' was the name by which the game was known throughout Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Only five of the squares within each row featured numbers, however. The French version of the game had 27 squares in three rows and nine columns, with numbers ranging from 1 to 90. From Italy, the game spread to France, where it was called Le Lotto. The modern game of bingo originates in a lottery-style game called Il Giuco del Lotto d'Italia ('the Italian Lottery Game'), first played around A.D.

I've seen pictures of the marks they leave, but I've never had one in my hot little hands, so I guess we'll just have to see what kind of elephants they produce. I have played bingo lottery cards, but this is my first-ever experience with bingo dabbers. I haven't played bingo since I was a child and you used little plastic chips to mark the spaces.

Purple bingo dabbers