The Bingo that we know today was developed during the late ’50s and early ’60s and its growth is linked with the introduction of television (in particular ITV) which had a damaging effect on cinema ticket sales, as more people coulded news and other shows from the comfort of her own home. This meant that cinema owners needed to create a new attraction, something that would draw people from the TV set and back to the cinema. In the beginning, Bingo was only played on certain days of the week when films were not being shown, but the cinema owners soon found that these ‘Bingo nights’ were much more popular than then film nights, and so they devoted progressively time to the game – eventually phasing out films altogetherfor instance, a caller might say “Tony’s Den, number ten”, or “All the fives, fifty five”. Many of the terms are simply rhyming slang; others are based on the shapes of the numbers, for instance, number 22, is also called “Two Little Ducks”, because the shape of number two is similar to that of a duck’s neck. Other nicknames are based on popular culture, for instance “The Beatles Number” for 64, simply because of their well know hit “When I’m 64″.

Andrew Regan is an online, freelance author from Scotland. He is a keen rugby player and enjoys travelling.  A national lottery was introduced and run every Saturday, and is still today. The Italian lottery was known as the “Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia” which literally translated means “the clearance of the lot of Italy”.

Curiously enough in 1567, the first UK state lottery was established in England by Queen Elizabeth I and this soon became part of bingo history in the UK, thousands of tickets were sold and prizes such as money, jewelery and tapestries represented given away. It was originally played in European countries and became part of American history as Europeans settlers took the game with them when they settled in the USA. For instance did you know that bingo has been used to teach biology?. Sounds strange doesn’t it? But the principle of educational bingo is sound and it works, and educational bingo is a very popular pedagogy.