Once associated with church basements and overly serious old ladies with elaborate lucky charm arrangements, bingo has experienced a bit of a comeback lately. Youâll find it in trendy bars, headlining [swanky fundraisers]( and played at [speakeasies in Mosul](.
The game itself is simpleâplayers purchase cards (some play multiples at a time) with a grid of random numbers, and listen as a caller pulls numbers at random (usually balls spinning in a hand-cranked tumbler), marking each corresponding square. The first player to fill their card, or achieve the specific pattern for the gameâan X, the frame of the card, or something altogether fancierâwins. Although itâs been around for centuries, bingo has garnered interest from a new set of trendsetters in venues where the only blue hair youâll spot is the cobalt or aqua variety.
Grab your lucky dauberâitâs bingo time.
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[Quartz Daily Obsession]
Bingo
May 01, 2020
A competitive classic finds new life
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Once associated with church basements and overly serious old ladies with elaborate lucky charm arrangements, bingo has experienced a bit of a comeback lately. Youâll find it in trendy bars, headlining [swanky fundraisers]( and played at [speakeasies in Mosul](.
The game itself is simpleâplayers purchase cards (some play multiples at a time) with a grid of random numbers, and listen as a caller pulls numbers at random (usually balls spinning in a hand-cranked tumbler), marking each corresponding square. The first player to fill their card, or achieve the specific pattern for the gameâan X, the frame of the card, or something altogether fancierâwins. Although itâs been around for centuries, bingo has garnered interest from a new set of trendsetters in venues where the only blue hair youâll spot is the cobalt or aqua variety.
Grab your lucky dauberâitâs bingo time.
ð¦ [Tweet this!](
ð [View this email on the web](
By the digits
[25:]( Months the Polish company Bingo Airways was operational
[6:]( Episodes of National Bingo Night, which aired on ABC in 2007
[$25 million:]( Bingo wagers in the US state of Nebraska in 1993
[$9.4 million:]( Bingo wagers in Nebraska in 2011
[75:]( Balls played in most North American bingo games
[90:]( Balls played in the UK, using a 3Ã9 grid
[£1 billion ($1.24 billion):]( Value of the UK bingo market, including bingo halls and online play in 2019
[70,080:]( Participants in the largest ever game of bingo, played in Bogotá, Colombia in 2006
[6,000:]( Bingo cards designed by Columbia University math professor Carl Leffler, who was allegedly driven mad by the task
[50:]( Points awarded for a âbingoâ in Scrabbleâwhen all seven tiles are played at once
Giphy
Origin story
From Lotto to Beano to Bingo
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The earliest known version of bingo is [Lo Giuoco del Lotto dâItalia]( the Italian National Lottery, which has been played every Saturday night, with very few exceptions, [since 1530]( when it was created to raise money for Florentine infrastructure. When it started it was very similar to modern bingoâplayers had cards with rows, and numbers were drawn from a bag. Players hoped the numbers would match those on their cards, and had to be quick enough to spot their numbers and call bingo before their competitors did.
By 1770, the craze spread to France, where it was dubbed âLe Lotto.â It hit the US with a fervor in the [early 1900s]( when carnivals hosted âBeanoâ games, so-called because players used dried beans to mark off numbers that had been called. Legend has it that when toymaker Edwin S. Lowe was play-testing his commercial version in 1929, an excited player yelled âBingo!â instead of âBeano!â However, the UK had been using the same name for a very similar game, so the story may be more marketing than history.
Membership
Get your fitness on lockdown
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The global transition to home fitness is fraught with injury, but fitness experts say staying healthy and safe is easier than it sounds. In our latest field guide on the home fitness boom, [we share their advice on working out safely](.
[Read now](
Fun fact!
Purple is the [most popular]( color of bingo dauber, though their exteriors come in [every shade of novelty]( imaginable.
Giphy
The way we ð now
Bingo in Baghdad
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[Jane Arraf, an international correspondent in Iraq for National Public Radio]( visited a bingo hall in Mosul in 2019, where players could win up to $3,000 per game. âI think, most of all, it brought back a part of that Iraq that I had known and loved and thatâs now harder to find, that tolerance where, if you want to, you can go to the mosque and pray, or if you want to, you can go and drink and play bingo,â she told All Things Considered. âAnd all of those things coexist.â
Bingo, [which is called tombola in Iraq]( has long been a way to socialize and win prizes like household appliances. While the venue Arraf visited catered to men only, mixed crowds gather to play bingo at the [Alwiyah Club]( in Baghdad. On bingo nights, Arabic pop music blasts and alcohol is served at the once-dry bar. Families pay $4 per person to sit at a table and play bingo all night for small cash prizes.
Million-dollar question
What are the odds?
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The odds of winning at bingo may seem extraordinarily complicated, given that the cards are all different; some people play a few cards while others play 20; and the numbers are chosen at random. Bingo odds are actually quite simpleâyour chance of winning isnât absolute, itâs in relation to other players. So your odds boil down to the [number of cards youâre playing divided by the total number of cards in play](. If there are 100 cards in play, and youâre playing 5, your odds of winning are 5 in 100, or 1 in 20. This is assuming a couple of things: That no one is tampering with the balls, none of the balls are damaged or dented, the number picker is working correctly, youâre perfectly eagle-eyed, and that youâre not playing a progressive bingo game.
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Quotable
âI sometimes feel as if ideas for a novel kind of pop up like numbers in a bingo tumbler, and then theyâre ready to go.â
â[Best-selling author Meg Wolitzer](
Giphy
pop quiz
Complete this verse from the childrenâs song about a dog named Bingo: âThe farmer loved a cup of good ale, he called it rare goodâ:
JingoRingoStingoThingo
Correct. Dating to the 1700s, the second and third verses are rarely recited now, even a thrilling line like, âThe farmer loved a cup of good ale, he called it rare good stingo.â
Incorrect.
If your inbox doesnât support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email.
This one weird trick
Bingoâs seedy underbelly
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Bingo isnât just played in church basements, itâs also an electronic casino gameâone with a dark history. In 2002, software engineer Brett Keeton was [accused of tampering]( with the programming of his companyâs proprietary bingo software. Las Vegas casino officials noticed Keeton was winning at bingo more than the average player, and tipped off the Gaming Control Board (GCB) to the potential illegal activity. Keeton couldnât control how the numbered balls were chosen, but it was believed that he had somehow rigged certain machines to allow more digital cards to be within a game session, increasing his odds of winning.
The GCB made Keeton aware that they wanted to talk to him; hours later, he jumped off of the Golden Gate Bridge. Officials were stymied by Keetonâs motiveâmost bingo wins topped out at a few hundred dollars. âMy experience in situations like this is, itâs the thrill of trying to defeat the system. But in this case, we donât know,â the [GCB chairman told the Chicago Tribune](.
Listed
Spotting a pattern
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Thereâs more than one winning [bingo pattern]( youâd better know your windmill from your postage stamp if you donât want to generate a lot of dirty looks from serious players.
âï¸[Postage stamp:]( Four numbers in a square, in a corner. Typically any corner, not just the upper right where a postage stamp typically goes on a real letter.
ð¬[Windmill:]( A âpostage stampâ in each corner, plus the free spot in the middle to resemble the fans of a windmill.
ð·[Wine Glass:]( The whole bottom row forms the base of the glass; the free space and the space below it are the âstem.â Extend diagonal lines to each upper corner starting at the free space, and youâve got a wine glass (though it looks more like a martini glass).
7ï¸â£[Lucky 7:]( The entire top row, and the diagonal line going from the upper right to the lower left, forming the number 7 across the entire card.
âï¸ Other [inventive patterns include]( swatter and fly, witches hat, snowflake, dollar bill, teeter-totter, torch, umbrella, anchor, and roller coaster.
Watch this!
Alright, alright, alright
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âEver play virtual bingo with Matthew McConaughey?â [asks the Enclave at Round Rock Senior Living facility](. âYouâd be a whole lot cooler if you did.â McConaughey and his family volunteered to virtually call bingo at the senior center to help entertain residents in quarantine in early April. What a nice young man!
Take me down this ð° hole!
For half of a decade, photographer Alison Turner traveled around the United States, [visually documenting bingo halls]( in small towns across America. âEach location I encountered brought in a true sense of community, complete with their own unique set of personalities and characters. A place where emotions of despair and hope come hand and hand throughout the night,â Turner [writes](.
AP Photo/Josh Reynolds
poll
Is bingo for grannies?
[Click here to vote](
Yes, so boring.No, I love bingo!No, but itâs not my thing, either.
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Todayâs email was written by [Stacy Conradt]( edited by [Annaliese Griffin]( and produced by [Tori Smith](.
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