Wednesday, November 3, 2021 - Bingo

Today I played bingo at the Addison Athletic Club. It is a fun program for seniors that happens once a month at 11 a.m. We pay $5 and receive half a Subway sandwich, chips and a bottle of water. So, we get to eat lunch and visit awhile before bingo starts. It is strictly a social gathering. I went once to a bingo hall where the participants were very unhappy if you sat in their favorite spot, and people played a dozen cards at the same time. There was no small talk or chatting there. It was all about the serious game of BINGO. Of course, people tend to get more serious when money is involved. The prizes at the Addison Athletic Club bingo are $5 gift cards to Subway, Chick-fil-a and Starbucks, along with home décor and exercise items. We even played bingo over Zoom during the pandemic. I delivered the prizes — and sometimes bingo cards — to people’s homes afterward. I didn’t need the bingo cards because I played bingo on my phone. There is an app that generates new cards. Bingo over Zoom kept us socially connected. In person it is funny how the same person may win several games. In Addison, you can only win prizes twice; then, you get to shout bingo, but everyone keeps on playing. Sometimes one or two tables of people would win all the games. Once, at an in-person game when we had a small turnout, everyone in the room had won except for one woman. When I had a winning card — after I had already won once — I passed her my card and said she won. So, we all got to be winners that day. Let’s learn more about the fascinating game of bingo.

According to Wikipedia, in the United States, bingo is a game of chance in which each player matches numbers printed in different arrangements on cards with the numbers the game host or caller draws at random, marking the selected numbers with tiles. When a player finds the selected numbers are arranged on their card in a row, they call out "Bingo!" to alert all participants to a winning card, which prompts the game host or an associate assisting the host to examine the card for verification of the win. Players compete against one another to be the first to have a winning arrangement for the prize or jackpot. After a winner is declared, the players clear their number cards of the tiles, and the game host begins a new round of play.

Alternative methods of play try to increase participation by creating excitement. Since its invention in 1929, modern bingo has evolved into multiple variations, with each jurisdiction's gambling laws regulating how the game is played. There are also nearly unlimited patterns that may be specified for play. Some games require only one number to be matched, while cover-all games award the jackpot for covering an entire card. There are even games that award prizes to players for matching no numbers or achieving no pattern.

Bingo played in the U.S. (75-ball bingo) is not to be confused with bingo played in the UK (90-ball bingo), as the tickets and the calling are slightly different.

Italian Lotto play slip

History

According to “Gambling Times Guide to Bingo” by Roger Snowden quoted at strangelife.com, bingo as we know it today is a form of lottery and is a direct descendant of Lo Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia or the Italian National Lottery. When Italy was united in 1530, the Italian National Lottery Lo Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia was organized and has been held — almost without pause — at weekly intervals to this date. Today the Italian lottery is indispensable to the government's budget, with a yearly contribution in excess of $75 million.

In 1778 it was reported in the French press that Le Lotto had captured the fancy of the intelligentsia. In the classic version of Lotto, which developed during this period, the playing card used in the game was divided into three horizontal and nine vertical rows. Each horizontal row had five numbered and four blank squares in a random arrangement. The vertical rows contained numbers from 1 to 10 in the first row, 11 to 20 in the second row, et cetera, up to 90. No two Lotto cards were alike. Chips numbered from 1 to 90 completed the playing equipment. Players were dealt a single Lotto card, then the caller would draw a small wooden, numbered token from a cloth bog and read the number aloud. The players would cover the number if it appeared on their card. The first player to cover a horizontal row was the winner.

In the 1800's educational Lotto games became popular. A German Lotto game of the 1850s was designed to teach children their multiplication tables. There were other educational Lotto games such as Spelling Lotto, Animal Lotto and Historical Lotto. Even in today's highly competitive toy and game market, Lotto is holding its own; Milton Bradley sells a Lotto game featuring the Sesame Street Muppets. The game is designed to provide children in the 3- to 6-year age range with a splash of fun while, at the same time, teaching them to count and recognize numbers.

According to Wikipedia, in the early 1920s, Hugh J. Ward created and standardized the game at carnivals in and around Pittsburgh and the Western Pennsylvania area. He copyrighted it and published a rule book in 1933.

According to “Gambling Times Guide to Bingo” by Roger Snowden quoted at strangelife.com, it was an evening in December of 1929 when a very tired New York toy salesman, Edwin S. Lowe, decided to drive on to Jacksonville, Georgia so that he might have an early start for his next day's appointments. The year before — with two employees and $1,000 capital — he had set up his own toy company. Soon after, the market crashed and the outlook for his budding firm looked bleak indeed.

A few miles from Jacksonville, Lowe came around a bend in the road and was greeted by the bright lights of a country carnival. He was ahead of schedule, so he parked his car and got out. All the carnival booths were closed except one, which was packed with people. Lowe stood on tiptoe and peered over the shoulders of the participants. The action centered on a horseshoe-shaped table covered with numbered cards and beans. The game being played was a variation of Lotto called Beano. The pitchman or caller pulled small numbered wooden disks from an old cigar box and, at the same time, called the number aloud. The players responded by eagerly checking their card to see if they had the number called; if so, they would place a bean on the number. This sequence continued until some someone filled a line of numbers on their card — either horizontally, vertically or diagonally. This feat was marked by the shout of "Beano!" The winner received a small Kewpie doll.

Ed Lowe tried to play Beano that night, but he recalls, "I couldn't get a seat. But while I was waiting around, I noticed that the players were practically addicted to the game. The pitchman wanted to close up, but every time he said, ‘This is the last game,’ nobody moved. When he finally closed at 3:00 a.m. he had to chase them out."

After locking up, the pitchman told Lowe that he had run across a game called Lotto while traveling with a carnival in Germany the previous year. His immediate thought was that it would make a good tent or carnival game. He made a few changes in its play, and a change of the name to Beano. The game proved to be such a surefire crowd pleaser and moneymaker that on his return to the United States, he continued to work the game on the carnival circuit.

Returning to his home in New York, Lowe bought some dried beans, a rubber numbering stamp and some cardboard. Friends were invited to his apartment and Ed Lowe assumed the pitchman's duties. Soon his friends were playing Beano with the same tension and excitement as he had seen at the carnival. During one session Lowe noticed that one of his players was close to winning. She got more excited as each bean was added to her card. Finally, there was one number left — and it was called! The woman jumped up, became tongue-tied and instead of shouting "Beano," stuttered "B-B-B-BINGO!"

"I cannot describe the strange sense of elation which that girl's cry brought to me," Lowe said. "All I could think of was that I was going to come out with this game, and it was going to be called Bingo!"

The earliest Lowe Bingo game in two variations — a 12-card set for one dollar and a two-dollar set with 24 cards. The game was an immediate success and put Lowe's company squarely on its feet.

Although the name Bingo could very well have been trademarked, the game itself, having come out of the public domain, had little chance of being protected. Imitators came out of the woodwork once the success of Lowe's game was evident. Lowe was very gracious about the whole affair, and bingo games began to flourish and grow in popularity.

Columbia University in 1900s

Several months after Bingo hit the market, Lowe was approached by a priest from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The father had a problem in his parish. A fast-thinking parishoner had come up with the idea of using bingo as a way to get the church out of its financial troubles. The priest had put the scheme into operation after having bought several sets of Lowe's $2.00 Bingo game. However, problems developed immediately when it was found that each game produced half a dozen or more winners. Lowe could immediately see the tremendous fundraising possibilities of Bingo, but at the same time, he realized that to make the game workable on this large a scale, a great many more combinations of numbers would have to be developed for the cards. To accomplish this, Lowe sought the services of an elderly professor of mathematics at Columbia University, one Carl Leffler. Lowe's request was the professor devise 6,000 new Bingo cards with non-repeating number groups. The professor agreed to a fee that remunerated him on a per card basis. As the professor worked on, each card became increasingly difficult. Lowe was impatient, and toward the end the price per card had risen to $100. Eventually, the task was completed. The E.S. Lowe Co. had its 6,000 cards — at the expense of the professor's sanity!

The church of Wilkes-Barre was saved and after it, a Knights of Columbus Hall in Utica, New York. Word spread fast. "I used to get thousands of letters asking for help on setting up Bingo games," said Lowe, so many that he published Bingo's first Instructional Manual. This effort was followed by a monthly newsletter called The Blotter — absorbs all Bingo news — which was distributed to 37,000 subscribers. By 1934 there were an estimated 10,000 bingo games a week, and Ed Lowe's firm had 1,000 employees frantically trying to keep up with demand — nine entire floors of the New York office space and 64 presses printing 24 hours a day — "... we used more newsprint than the New York Times!" According to Lowe, the largest bingo game in history was played in New York's Teaneck Armory — 60,000 players, with another 10,000 being turned away at the door. Ten automobiles were given away. Bingo was off to a fast start, and at the same time, had reserved itself next to baseball and apple pie thanks to Ed Lowe and the loss of Professor Leffler's sanity.

Culture

Single games often have multiple bingos; for example, the players first play for a single line; after that, play goes on until a full card is called; then, play continues for a consolation full card.

Players often play multiple cards for each game; 30 is not an unusual number. Because of the large numbers of cards played by each player, most halls have the players sit at tables to which they often fasten their cards with adhesive tape. To mark cards faster the players usually use special markers called daubers. At commercial halls, after calling the number the caller then displays the next number on a television monitor; bingo cannot be called until that number is called aloud, however.

Bingo is often used as an instructional tool in American schools and in teaching English as a foreign language in many countries. Typically, the numbers are replaced with beginning reader words, pictures or unsolved math problems. Custom bingo creation programs now allow teachers and parents to create bingo cards using their own content.

Terminology

Ready/Waiting/Cased/Set/Down/Chance/Shot/Pat/Open – A player who only needs one number to complete the bingo pattern is considered to have a Shot or be Ready, Waiting, Cased, Set or Down, or to "have a chance."

Breaking the Bubble or "Possible" – The bubble is the minimum number of balls required to complete the bingo pattern. This is the earliest point any player could have a valid bingo. Example: Winning pattern is 1 hard way bingo, a straight line without the free space. The minimum number of called numbers is five — four if each number is under "N" — although it is not considered Breaking the Bubble or possible until one number in each column or four/five numbers in a single column have been called.

Jumping the Gun/Premature Bingo/Social Error – One who calls bingo before having a valid bingo. The most common situation is someone calling Bingo! using the next number in the screen before it has been called.

Wild numbers – Many bingo halls will have certain games with a wild number. Wild numbers allow bingo players to start with multiple called numbers. Typically, the first ball drawn is the determining factor.

Standard – All numbers ending with the second digit of the first number. Example: First ball is 22. All numbers ending in a 2 including B2 is considered a called number.

Forwards/backwards – All numbers beginning or ending with the wild number. Example: First ball is 22. All numbers beginning or ending with a 2 is considered a called number. If the first number ends with an 8, 9 or 0, another number may be drawn as there are no numbers starting with an 8 or 9 and only 9 numbers starting with a 0. Some halls will also redraw a number ending with a 7 as there are only six numbers beginning with a 7.

False Alarm or Just Practicing – Tongue-in-cheek term used when one calls bingo but is mistaken. This could be because of mishearing the caller or stamping the wrong number by mistake. One who calls a "falsie" genuinely believes he/she has a bingo. This is also known as a "social error." Another term used for this is a "bongo."

Hard Way Bingo – A hard-way bingo is a bingo pattern in a straight line without the use of the free space.

Reach - In Japan, a player will yell "Reach" when he/she is one space away from a bingo.

Foxwoods Casino 3,600-seat bingo hall in Connecticut

The business of bingo

In the U.S., the game is primarily staged by churches or charity organizations. Its legality and stakes vary by state regulation. In some states, bingo halls are rented out to sponsoring organizations, and such halls often run games almost every day. Church-run games, however, are normally weekly affairs held on the church premises. These games are usually played for modest stakes, although the final game of a session is frequently a coverall game that offers a larger jackpot prize for winning within a certain quantity of numbers called, and a progressive jackpot is one that may increase per session until it is won.

Commercial bingo games in the U..S are primarily offered by casinos — and then only in the state of Nevada — and by Native American bingo halls, which are often housed in the same location as Native American-run casinos. In Nevada, bingo is offered mainly by casinos that cater to local gamblers, and not the famous tourist resorts. They usually offer one-hour sessions, on the odd hours e.g., 9 am, 11am, 1pm daily, typically from 9am through 11pm, with relatively modest stakes except for coverall jackpots. Station Casinos — a chain of locals-oriented casinos in Las Vegas — offers a special game each session, called "Jumbo" that ties all of its properties together with a large progressive jackpot. Most bingo parlors in Las Vegas use handheld machines on which the games are played, except the Station Casino and the Fiesta Casino which has paper bingo cards and no machines. Native American games are typically offered for only one or two sessions a day and are often played for higher stakes than charity games to draw players from distant places. Some also offer a special progressive jackpot game that may tie together players from multiple bingo halls.

As well as bingo played in house, the larger commercial operators play some games linked by telephone across several, perhaps dozens, of their clubs. This increases the prize money, but reduces the chance of winning — both due to the greater number of players.

Bingo halls are sometimes linked together — as by Loto Québec in Canada — in a network to provide alternative winning structures and bigger prizes.

Bingo is also the basis for online games sold through licensed lotteries. Tickets are sold as for other numbers games, and the players get receipts with their numbers arranged as on a regular bingo card. The daily or weekly draw is normally broadcast on television. These games offer higher prizes and are more difficult to win.

The bingo logic is frequently used on scratch card games. The numbers are pre-drawn for each card and hidden until the card is scratched. In lotteries with online networks the price is electronically confirmed to avoid fraud based on physical fixing.

Some gay bars and other LGBT-oriented organizations in both Canada and the United States also stage bingo events, commonly merged with a drag show and billed as "Drag Bingo" or "Drag Queen Bingo." "Drag Bingo" events were first launched in Seattle in the early 1990s as a fundraiser for local HIV/AIDS charities. They have since expanded to many other cities across North America, supporting a diverse range of charities.

Bingo has gone beyond a fundraising role and is often featured in bars and nightclubs as a social and entertainment event with both numbered and music bingo variations, attracting a loyal following of regular players. Many venues promote a bingo event to attract customers at off-peak times, such as weeknights and Sundays, which are traditionally slower for such businesses. The games are called by drag and non-drag hosts alike and often include ancillary activities such as cabaret shows, contests and other themed activities that add interest and encourage audience participation. Customers are invited to play for a chance to win cash and other prizes.

With one bingo hall for every 6,800 residents, Cheektowaga, New York is believed to have the highest concentration of bingo halls in the United States. The suburb of Buffalo's large Polish-American Catholic population is believed to be a factor for bingo's outsized popularity in Western New York, which has five times as many bingo halls per capita as the rest of the state.

Electronic bingo

The advent of computer technology in bingo has blurred the lines between traditional slot machines and bingo slot machines. To the average person, bingo-based slot machines are physically indistinguishable from an RNG-based slot machine typically seen in Atlantic City or Las Vegas. These devices are commonly called Class II machines, because the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act separated bingo — including electronic and mechanical aids — where players play against each other from Class III slot machines where players play against the house.

As a result of the passage of SB1180 in 2017, the State of Arizona now allows technological aids for bingo games that functions only as an electronic substitute for bingo cards. These technological aids are not defined by Arizona law or regulation, but one such electronic technological aid consists of a system which includes a network linking player interfaces to a number drawing device or ball-draw server and an electronic substitute for a "live" cashier. The player interfaces themselves do not contain random number generators or allow a player to directly deposit cash. Rather, the Arizona technological aid system allows a player to deposit money into a unique individual player's account, pay for the games played out of that account, and at the end of play redeposit the value of any unused games that player may have purchased or won back into that account. The system does not allow the player to print a redemption ticket or receive anything of value directly from the player interface. In Arizona this system is only legally available for use by fraternal organizations, service organizations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion or Amvets, or nonprofits such as hospice or volunteer fire departments.