Putting the charity back into bingo

Children at a school in Africa will soon benefit from a library, thanks to a bingo night hosted at a school in Derbyshire, UK. This charitable act evokes the origins of bingo for our columnist, Tracy Wright.

Did you know that the origins of bingo are charitable? I bet you didn’t. Not many people know this, unfortunately. I was therefore delighted to see that bingo was being put to really good charitable purposes last week. Indeed, Two Little Fleas reported that, a bingo night at a school in Derbyshire was used to raise money to help build a library for a school in Africa. What wonderful children, I thought to myself.

The kids at this school reportedly raised more than a thousand pounds for a primary school in Malawi to build a library. However, it is shame that this type of thing doesn’t happen more often, because as I mentioned earlier – bingo is originally a charitable pastime. Just think: up and down the country, how much fun could be had by children and parents alike at schools playing bingo while raising money for a host of amazing causes.

While the game was originally first played in Italy in the 1500s, it was in America during the 1930s when the game really took off. The man responsible for bringing the game to the States was a New Yorker called Edwin S. Lowe. He was contacted by a Catholic priest from Pennsylvania, who wanted to use the game to raise money for decaying churches. Lowe agreed that it could be used for this purpose, and churches across the US soon began hosting bingo evenings as a means of raising money for church repairs, as well as a for a host of other charitable causes.

I was reminded of this when I read the story on Two Little Fleas. Fortunately, in the online marketplace today, there are still some people who try and continue that priest’s legacy. Several cancer charities host bingo sites, such as Rehab and Tickety Boo Bingo – whose entire profits go to Marrie Currie Cancer Care. Our National Lottery, moreover, is run by Camelot, who also donate a significant chunk of its intake back into charitable causes in our society.

One of the charity bingo sites that is around which I have a lot of time for is called Charity Bingo. They donate a pound in every £20 deposited to a charity (5% of intake). And each month, interestingly, they change their charity in order to help as many causes as they can.

How wonderful it is to see bingo seemingly being used more and more for charitable purposes – as it really should be. It is a wonderful game with humble origins. Well done to those kids in Derby. They should be very proud of themselves.