BINGO FACTS

  • Bingo originated in Italy and is descended from Lo Giuoco del Lotto d'Italia, the Italian national lottery, which has been played since 1530.
  • Bingo was popularised by a New York toy salesman, Edwin S Lowe, who, back in December 1929 came across the game being played at a fair in Jacksonville Georgia. The pitchman told Lowe that he had come across the game being played at fairs in Germany. Lowe returned home and recreated the game for friends. Upon seeing how popular it proved to be he decided to produce it as a boxed game, ‘Beano’. It is believed that the name change came about as a result of a friend, who when playing got so excited that she shouted ‘bingo!’. A similar version of the game known as ‘Housey-Housey’ was also being played in the UK at the same time, which went on to also be known as bingo.
  • Bingo can be played using sets of 90, 85 or 75 numbers. The National Bingo Game is played using a set of 90 numbers, 1-90.
  • Between 120 - 180 clubs link together to play the National Bingo Game twice a day, everyday, except Christmas day.
  • Over three million people play bingo regularly in the UK (at least twice a week).
  • Eight per cent of the UK population play bingo - 10% of all women and 5% of all men.
  • The most common reasons for playing bingo are because it’s fun and offers the chance to socialise and win big money.
  • Celebs love bingo! Catherine Zeta Jones can thank bingo for her career after her dad won enough to afford to send her to theatre school; Robbie Williams went to his local Bingo club in Stoke and played bingo with Daryl Hannah in his music video for Feel. Other celebrity fans include: Denise Van Outen, Scott Mills, not to mention her majesty the Queen who apparently chooses to call ‘Palace’ rather than ‘house’!
  • A number of celebrities also started their careers in bingo calling including Simon from boy band Blue, EastEnder’s Shane Richie, Russell Crowe and Kian from West Life.
  • Total prize money distributed to date by The National Bingo Game is over £1BILLION!
  • The biggest bingo win ever was on 23 March 2008, when Soraya Lowell from Motherwell, North Lanarkshire scooped GBP £1,167,795, while playing The National Game at Club 3000 in Coatbridge
© National Bingo Game Association 2024
  • 18

The EU would like us to tell you about the cookies we use on this website.
We use them to remember things such as, you’ve logged in, they also help us record data like, the number of visits a page gets so that we can improve the site.
The cookies don’t tell us amongst other things, who you are, your favourite colour or the name of your first pet. To find out more about the cookies we use see our Privacy Policy.

I agree to the use of cookies