Returning to his home in New York, Lowe bought some dried beans,

rubber numbering stamp and some cardboard. Friends were invited to his apartment and Ed Lowe assumed the pitchman’s duties. Soon his friends were playing Beano with the same tension and excitement as he had seen at the carnival. During one session Lowe noticed that one of his players was close to winning. She got more excited as each bean was added to her card. Finally there was one number left – and it was called! The woman jumped up, became tongue tied, and instead of shouting “Beano,” stuttered “B-B-B-BINGO!”

“I cannot describe the strange sense of elation which that girl’s cry brought to me,” Lowe said. “All I Delhi Bazaar Satta King could think of was that I was going to come out with this game, and it was going to be called Bingo!”

The earliest Lowe Bingo game in two variations – a twelve card sert for one dollar and a two dollar set with twenty-four cards. The game was an immediate success and put Lowe’s company squarely on its feet.

Although the name Bingo could very well have been trademarked, the game itself, having come out of the public domain, had little chance of being protected. Imitators came out of the woodwork once the success of Lowe’s game was evident. Lowe was very gracious about the whole affair. He asked his competitors to pay him a dollar a year, and to call their games Bingo, too. A small price to pay to avoid litigation – and this the name became generic.

Bingo Cards and Insane Mathamaticians

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