Bingo: a word which moved Salisbury University students to frustration, excitement and joy on Oct. 21, is a game involving luck which was popularized in 1929. Bingo is integral to SU’s engagement in terms of events that students gravitate towards. Akin to a holiday, the ongoing popularity of bingo at SU is notable and is hosted once a month: the tradition of bingo continued last Monday.

The roots of bingo can be traced back to 16th century Italy, where a game called “Il Gioco del Lotto d’Italia” was played. Similar to today’s bingo, contestants would select numbers from a grid and hope that the host had the same numbers as the contestants. The game then took root in the United States during World War I and is now one of the most played social games in the world.

Salisbury University hosts various types of bingo throughout the school year. The first bingo was on orientation day, in which students competed for a television, cleaning supplies and games. 

The following bingo was cosmic bingo, which eventually led to October’s “Mystery Bingo”. During “Mystery Bingo,” contestants played bingo normally, with five winners each round. The catch was that all of the players blindly chose the wrapped up boxes and out of the five, one of them had the ability to steal a mystery box (after it was all simultaneously opened).

Jayden, a SU freshman majoring in Health Science, enthusiastically partook in the bingo game on the night of the 21st. She described the event as “awesome.”

“Oh bingo, we’ve been to every bingo event before, we want to win, we love it,” she said. “You get prizes and it’s awesome. I hope [we’ll win], last time I [won] a pack of celsius, we also had gotten slime.

Bingo night was intensely chaotic, with students screaming about how they were one number away from bingo, as well as students and faculty hollering at other players who had gotten “Bingo.” 

One memorable highlight of the event was a dance off between two students, one man and one woman. The girl ended up winning, but the guy, for lack of better words, did a dance which was not up to Salisbury University’s guidelines.

Bingo night was a whole lot of fun– they can’t wait to see you in November!

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By JAMES HUFF

Staffer

Image courtesy of James Huff