When the game came to America it was restructured by toy salesman Edwin Lowe into a seventy-five number casino game played on a five number by five number square grid with the letters of the word bingo across the top. Each vertical column has five numbers out of a range of fifteen numbers with the middle space of the N column designated as a free space. This allows it to be used to fill in for any N number in the making of a play live bingo. Regular bingo consists of a vertical, horizontal and diagonal line and sometime the four corners if the house rules allow. Special games can be for a variety of patterns which the square nature of the grid allows or for a coverall. The American version allows for more variety than the British version does.

The bingo free game is derived from the Lo Giucco del Lotto D’Italia which was the Italian National Lottery begun in 1530. The extremely popular game spread across the continent and eventually reached America. The game developed in different ways in the United Kingdom and in the United States. In the United Kingdom the game is based on ninety numbers and is played on a rectangular grid made of nine columns and three rows. Each vertical column has a range of ten numbers. The tickets have five numbers on each row and a regular bingo consists of one line. Two and three lines are played as special games with the three line coverall being called housie.