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The humble bingo card is not as humble as you may think. Its uses have developed beyond anyone’s expectations and they are no longer exclusive to bingo. Bingo and its cards can be traced back to an Italian lottery game called Lo Gioco del Lotto d’Italia that basically means ‘the game of lotto of Italy.’ It was played in the early 1500s and by the 1700s, a version of this game was developed in France where paper cards were first used to track the numbers that were called out. Before printing machines were invented numbers on bingo cards were applied by hand or stamped onto thick cardboard, these cards were also reusable.
The game of bingo eventually arrived in other parts of Europe including the UK and further versions of bingo cards and even new bingo phrases were introduced into the equation - deposit and play bingo.
Modern Bingo Cards
Different versions of bingo have now become the new norm and some bingo games are faster and shorter than they used to be. However, 75-ball bingo is still going strong and the card contains a 5x5 grid and this is the most popular version of the game in the United States and the most likely version of bingo any visitor to America will encounter. In the UK 90-ball bingo rules the roost and the cards are typically 9x3 grids.
Extraordinary Uses For Bingo Cards
Bingo cards have unexpectedly become useful teaching tools in schools around the world. Here they are used as icebreakers for new classes where students get to know each other or if a controversial subject needs to be addressed such as bullying, then aspects of the subject are written on the cards and called out and discussed. Traditional numbers are also used on bingo cards at schools but these act as math tools and can aid children at teaching them their times tables. Some bingo cards are also used to help teach students fractions and sometimes instead of numbers, popular foods like pizza are used as visual aids instead.
Bingo Cards In Health Care
The health industry has also made fascinating use of bingo cards and here they have been used to help patients afflicted with diseases of the brain such as dementia and Alzheimer’s. Patients can identify anything from animals to food thanks to these cards. Already, doctors around the world are using newly designed bingo cards to help patients afflicted with these mind-altering diseases.
Daily mental stimulation is vital for people with cognitive disorders and results from experimenting with bingo cards have shown promise. Another advantage of using bingo cards on elderly patients is that many of them still play the game as part of their social routine.
Bingo card games in the health industry are also available on a digital platform. Now patients can have their memories stimulated by bingo cards on computer screens too. These useful visual aids have proved vital in treating patients afflicted with cognitive disorders and one such game called Smartbrain, has been shown to have positive affects on brain function in Alzheimer’s patients.
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