To understand Slingo slots, we need to check out a few defining factors before we get into this, beginning with what defines ‘bingo.’ And you may be surprised to learn that bingo has its origins in an Italian lottery called ‘Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia’, which is almost 500 years old!
That means that bingo predates the first-ever casino, which opened in Venice in 1638 by over a hundred years. But how did it evolve into the game we know today?
A Short History of Bingo.
‘Lo Giuoco del Lotto D’Italia’ migrated to France where it became known as ‘Le Lotto’. A similar version was played in Germany, but in this incarnation, it was used as a method of learning mathematics in school.
The game landed in the USA at some point in the early 20th century where it was known as ‘beano’. But the game was a far cry from the bingo we know today as it involved cigar boxes, discs and, er, beans -hence ‘beano’.
The modern game as we know it is down to toy salesman Edwin S. Lowe. Not only did he rename the game ‘bingo’, he employed a math professor to increase the numerical combination on the cards to up the ante.
But you’ve got the Catholic church to thank for making bingo popular after a priest approached Lowe for permission to use his game to raise funds for his church. The fact that bingo was popularised in the US through such a respected institution explains why bingo is seen as a healthy alternative to poker, say.
Put it another way, bingo is still associated with church halls, retirement homes or nice old ladies having an evening out. Slots, on the other hand, are not associated with such gentile practices, nor were they ever…
A Short History of Slots
There’s no help from the church to moral-wash slots. It all began in the 1894s when Charles Fey marketed his new mechanical gaming machine, The Liberty Bell.
This device became a hit in the old-fashioned saloons beloved by Westerns. In time, the original three-reel machine would become a five-reel machine. The original horseshoe, bell and card suit motifs became pieces of fruit in 1909 after the machines were banned for a short while in San Francisco.
The fruit was meant to represent flavours of gum after the machines became makeshift chewing gum dispensers to circumnavigate the laws. Incidentally, the bar logo derives from a schematized image of a pack of gum -you can have that one for free.
The ‘jackpot’ (when fruit machines gave up their content to a lucky winner) was invented in 1916, but it wasn’t until after the Second World War that slots became a phenomenon. This was down to a combination of new tax laws that allowed various governments an easy revenue stream. And advancing technologies.
For example, the 50s saw the first electronic slots, the mid-70s saw the first video slots and the following decade saw slot machines being linked up to maximise jackpots. In 2003 a Las Vegas slot machine paid out nearly $40 million to one lucky punter.
These days, of course, slots and bingo can be played online, but the basic principles of both hark back to the early 20th century. Slingo, however, is a much more modern consideration.
What is Slingo, then?
Slingo was invented in 1994 by Sal Falciglia, an American who came up with it after being inspired by his mum’s fondness for bingo and his passion for fruit machines. The premise is simple, take a bingo card on a standard 5×5 grid and match the numbers with what appears on the five-slot reel underneath.
Slingo is achieved when you mark off five numbers in a row on the winning line, which can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal. There is no skill involved, it’s all controlled by Random Number Generators (RNG) like slots, but it’s very moreish.
Its ingenuity lies in pulling together the best of both words. You have the anticipation of marking off numbers with bingo but with the instant gratification of slots.
There is a load of different themes to keep players engaged, even if the format of the game is essentially the same. But there is another element that sets Slingo in a category of one: live, multiplayer games.
Sure, you can play slots with others, but Slingo, with its bingo DNA, just works better. And like slots, it can be played on the go, which has contributed to its burgeoning appeal.
So, what of its future? Slingo is a comparatively new online game -unlike slots and, of course, bingo- but it’s become established very quickly. Indeed, the speed at which it’s grown suggests that Slingo could wind up being one of the most popular online games of all time.
