Live TV Bingo Night Suffern NY

Town of Ramapo LIVE TV Thanksgiving Bingo Night - Suffern, NY

After you've had your Thanksgiving Dinner and packed away your leftovers, its time to sit down and enjoy some family time.  Bingo has always been a fun family game suitable for all ages and the Town of Ramapo in Rockland County NY has been sponsoring a Bingo game night every Thanksgiving for the past 10 years now.

They will once again be sponsoring their Thanksgiving Night Live TV Bingo.  It will take place from 8:00PM - 10:30PM on Thursday, November 24, 2011.

If youd like to play, you can join the live game at town hall (located at 237 Route 59, Suffern NY 10901) or if you'd rather, you can stretch out in front of your TV at home and play from the comfort of your own living room.  Just tune into the Town of Ramapo site, or on Cablevision Channels 75/77/78, or on FIOS channel 32. 

Not to worry if you're playing from home. Prizes will get awarded to call-in game winners too and there's no charge to participate.  Join them for one game or for all 25.

Official Ramapo Bingo Cards can be downloaded from the Town of Ramapo site or can be picked up at the Town Supervisor's office in Town Hall.

Bingo, by the way was a game that originated in Italy in the 1500's as a lotto game.  It was played by the French in the 1700's and by the Germans in the 1800's.  It first made it's appearance in the United States in 1929, at a country fair. 

The game was originally called "beano" - a dealer would select numbered discs from a box and players would mark their cards with beans in a pre-agreed upon order and yell "beano" if they won.  Someone accidentally yelled "bingo" and a NY toy salesman by the name of Ed Lowe overheard it and renamed the game "bingo" when he started marketing it.

A few years after the introduction of the game in the US, a Catholic priest from Pennsylvania approached Lowe about using the bingo game as a means of raising church funds. Once bingo started being played in churches it became very popular. By 1934, an estimated 10,000 bingo games were played weekly, and today more than $90 million dollars are spent on bingo each week in North America alone.

The Thanksgiving Town of Ramapo game is not played for money but there will be some great prizes for both adults and children so make sure to tune-in and join the fun!

Flickr Photo by Nils Geylen