BINGO GUIDE FOR 80 BALL BINGO
It remains to be seen whether or not bingo would have experienced anything like the surge in popularity that it has had today if it were not for an American entrepreneur called Erwin S. Lowe who created the modern scorecards that are universally used today back in the early 1900s. Whilst bingo was being played quite heavily before then, it wasn’t really standardised, and this meant that it was difficult for one main bingo game to lift off – play now.
In fact, before Erwin S. Lowe’s involvement bingo didn’t even have a standardised name, with it appearing under various different pseudonyms around the world before this. In America people used to shout “beano!” when they won, and Mr. Lowe took this and changed it to “bingo”, hence the name. 80 ball bingo is a fairly popular type of bingo, so keep reading for a quick bingo guide for 80 ball bingo.
A brief recap of 80 ball bingo history
Before we get into the nit and gritty of 80 ball bingo it’s worth having a quick recap of 80 ball bingo history, as this can help you understand the way it is played too. Amazingly the history of 80 ball bingo actually has its roots all the way back in the 1500s, where a game called Il Gioco del Lotto d’Italia was very popular, and extremely reminiscent of modern day bingo.
The origins of 80 ball bingo, however, are a little more difficult to pin down, because 80 ball bingo sits in-between the more European 90 ball bingo, and the quintessentially American 90 ball bingo. 80 ball bingo really became popular in the mid 20th century, as a result of a bingo resurgence after the Second World War.
How to play 80 ball bingo
Right then, onto the basics of how to play 80 ball bingo. One of the main things to remember about 80 ball bingo is literally in the name – the fact that it’s played with 80 balls. This means that there are 80 different chances for bingo players to knock a number off of their scorecard, and if they manage to hit all 16 numbers before somebody else they win!
At the start of the 80 ball bingo game everybody will have blank scorecards, and players are expected to cross theirs of in accordance with the bingo numbers that are called by the bingo number caller.