Dear Mark,
Please can you tell me when and where did the game of Bingo originate? Was it
not called Housey Housey years ago? Yvonne B.
Sometimes called beano, the corn game, and yes, Yvonne, even Housey-Housey;
credit the Italians for being the inventors of Bingo.
The game was first called "Lo Giuoco del Lotto D' Italia," but when
the French got hold of it in the late 1770's, they shortened the name to "Le
Lotto." Initially Le Lotto was played strictly amongst opulent French aristocrats.
I’ll bet those upper-crusters couldn’t handle the action my Mom managed;
at least a dozen cards at once.
An etymologist I’m not, but my belief is that the development of the word
Housey-Housey can be traced to England as that was what the popular game was
called amongst seafaring British troops during both World War I and World War
II. Our boys much preferred dice and a blanket, and as my Uncle once said, dice
games probably kept more soldiers on their knees than did any Chaplain.
Edwin S. Lowe, a traveling salesman who accidentally chanced upon the game
at a carnival in Atlanta in 1929, is credited for making the game popular, but
the word Bingo itself, suggesting a bell’s ring, was added a bit prior
in 1925 to announce a win.
Dear Mark,
I won our service club’s (I’ll keep its name private since technically
we’re not supposed to be gambling) Texas Hold’em tournament with the
following hand.
My two hole cards were kings, and on the flop I received two more making
a four-of-a-kind on the first five of seven cards. I slow played an aggressive
player by just calling his bets, and he eventually went all in at the turn,
when he caught a full house. He had deuces as pocket cards and caught the deuce
on the turn. Needless to say he was pretty upset that his hand wasn’t good
enough and said it was a million-to-one shot that beat him. I doubt that, but
what were the odds of my four-of-a-kind occurring at the flop? I was just wondering
how lucky I was. Phil T.
Luck of Irish Sweepstakes proportion, nah, but congrats on your score, Phil,
supported by King David (spades), Alexander the Great (clubs), Charlemagne (hearts)
and Julius Caesar (diamonds).
The probability of being dealt two kings before the flop is 72.7 to 1. Catching
two more kings and another card, in this case a deuce, on the flop to make four
kings is 407 to 1.
Dear Mark,
I have read that faro was a very popular game in the Old West. Did it originate
in this country? Was it ever legal as a game in Nevada? Can you still play it
now? Gordon W.
Faro was a card game invented by the French, who adapted it from the Venetian
game of Basetta, which can be traced back to the 15th century in Italy. French
gamblers called the game Pharaoh because one of the honored cards bore the face
of an Egyptian Pharaoh. John Law, an exiled Scotsman, introduced it to this
country by way of New Orleans, where it then chugged up the river on the Mississippi
steamboats, and then cantered across the Wild West.
It became a casino game in 1931 when Nevada legalized gambling, but virtually
disappeared by the 1950s. The last faro game was dealt in 1975 in Ely, Nevada,
although it did reappear for a short period of time in Reno in the early 80’s.
There were three reasons why the game initially became so popular. It was simple
to play, it held a casino advantage of under 2%, and the game was played at
a very fast pace--two hands per minute. Faro’s demise was because the opportunity
for a dealer cheating was greater than with any other card game, that, and its
low house edge.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: “Sir, I really like poker. Every hand
has its different problems.” -- Henry Fonda, playing Wyatt Earp in My Darling
Clementine
