History
In the early 1500s the people of Italy began to play a game called "Lo Gioco del Lotto d'Italia," which literally means "The lottery of Italy." The game operated very much like a modern lottery as players placed bets on the chances of certain numbers being drawn. By the 1700s, a version of Lo Gioco del Lotto d'Italia was played in France, where paper cards were first used to keep track of numbers drawn by a caller.
Before the advent of printing machines, numbers on bingo cards were either painted by hand or stamped using rubber stamps onto thick cardboard. Cards were reusable, meaning players used tokens to mark called numbers. The number of unique cards was limited as randomization had to occur by hand. Before the advent of online Bingo, cards were printed on card stock and, increasingly, disposable paper. While cardboard and paper cards are still in use, Bingo halls are turning more to "flimsies" (also called "throwaways") — a card inexpensively printed on very thin paper to overcome increasing cost — and electronic Bingo cards to overcome the difficulty with randomization.
Read more about this topic: Bingo Card
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–c. 120)
“Look through the whole history of countries professing the Romish religion, and you will uniformly find the leaven of this besetting and accursed principle of action—that the end will sanction any means.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)