Bingo (named and popularised)

Back to the ideas wall
Who

Edwin S. Lowe, an American Jewish games publisher

When

1929

Where

Georgia and New York, United States

At a Georgia carnival in 1929 Edwin Lowe watched a crowd playing a bean-marker lotto game called beano, and heard a winner shout "bingo" by mistake. He kept the mistake, hired a mathematician to build cards with fewer repeated combinations, and turned a fairground pastime into a game played worldwide — often to raise money for churches and charities.

Part of “The Gifts of the Jews” — verified Jewish contributions to the world, with sources.