History of Reality Bingo Patterns

Here's a short history of how unusual bingo patterns were conceived. We can also glimpse from this that bingo is an ingenious game for those who have an active imagination about what they see around.

Bingo was first "Beano" because back in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia Americans used beans to mark out called out numbers. Before this the first forms of the game (similar to lottery) appeared in Italy, France, and Germany circa 1500s to 1800s.

Marking out numbers on the card as they were called out was really aimless without a definite objective. Otherwise, bingo players would have just marked out all the numbers possible on all the cards available and nothing would have come out of that. There had to be a common goal—and this is what makes gambling work, a competition—who gets the goal first wins. Blackjack has 21, poker has the highest hand, roulette has the right number and color bets, backgammon has the home board. But without a common goal, what would marking out numbers on cards have done for bingo?

So bingo patterns were decided on. A specific pattern was to be the common goal of the players—the first one to have the agreed pattern on the card won. First there were simple patterns—horizontal, vertical, and diagonal. Later, players started being creative and looked around for more patterns—like the Railroad. Being a game mostly (but not exclusively) for the masses, workers who worked in railroads or who commuted daily on them probably thought up the idea. The pattern is simple: just mark out every space in alternating rows, like B and N or N and O.

Then there's the Bow Tie. Those times bow ties were worn not only by the rich, just as suits then were ordinary clothes. It was a common clothing accessory. Some smart bingo player came up with the idea and it has been used ever since. A Bow Tie has double 2x2 spaces separated by a space. Have these on a corner and win. How about the Pyramids? Pyramids have an all-time high popularity—as long as those in Egypt still stand. To win this pattern, have all spaces at the bottom marked out, as well as three spaces in the middle of the fourth row, and one space in the middle of the third row at N.

Many bingo patterns were derived from scenes we see from reality. Hence, some say bingo is among very realistic card games.