Bingo in France
From October onwards you’ll see ’Rifles’ advertised everywhere you go in the P-O!
No need to duck unless you’re talking “two little ones”! It’s bingo….or lotto throughout France, along with various regional alternatives!
A Rifle
Originating from provencal slang, the word is used mainly in south west France. Several other words are used in other regions: Quine in the Cantal, the Aveyron, Charente-Maritime, the Lot, and the Lozère, Rifle in the Cher, the Loir-et-Cher, the Pyrénées-Orientales, Béziers, and the Nièvre, Loto-Quine in Picardie, Nord-Pas-de-Calais and la Réunion and Poule au gibier in Corrèze!
All non profit making associations are allowed to organise 2 rifles a year in order to raise funds for their activities, so it’s all for a good cause. And forget cash jackpots — traditional rifles are more likely to offer baskets of groceries, joints of ham, wine, chocolates, cheese, household items, occasionally… a wheelbarrow or a frozen turkey or even a half a wild boar!!
All about the gossip
In fact, French bingo is tightly regulated: It must be non-profit, organised by registered associations, with strict limits on prize values so they tend to remain charmingly old-fashioned — and gloriously competitive, and in many French villages,
In many villages, it’s all about the gossip!
Origins
Some believe that Lotto, an age-old game of chance, originated in China in 200 B.C., others that the origins of Lotto go way back to Moses who is said to have distributed land west of the Jordan River by drawing lots.
Introduced into France from Italy, imported by François 1er in the 16th century, it was played at court amongst the French aristocracy.
The name ‘Bingo’ first appeared in North America around 1929, under another name, ‘beano’, because small beans were used for chips. Players often shouted ‘Bingo’ instead of ‘beano’, and the name stuck.
A mathematics professor, Carl Leffler, is credited with creating over 6,000 bingo grids. According to legend, he later went mad!
Two Little Ducks
Most French bingo callers (animateurs) rarely just read numbers. They perform them.
Common calls include:
22 – les deux petits canards
90 – le grand-père
11 – les jambes de la femme
7 – le petit bonheur
69 – usually followed by giggles, no explanation needed…
Whether you play for the prizes, the banter or the biscuits, a French rifle is less about winning and more about belonging…oh, and arguing about the numbers is compulsory.