Bingo!
This exclamation has become synonymous with the cry 'Got it!,' or 'A hit!' If you think back on the origins of the game, you'll doubtless imagine nostalgically convivial scenes of crowded rooms full of grey heads in a community centre or care home. But before computers, board games like these were popular with everyone in the Netherlands, from old to young.
Board, dice, card and skill games used to be played in pubs far more than they are today. Regulars delighted in their bingo nights (first prize: a liver sausage!). There was a pleasurable tension on those evenings, as punters enjoyed a drink while expectantly murmuring their numbers to themselves, until that excited cry went up: 'Bingo!' Another card filled.
Vandal proof
It's no wonder that beer companies came up with branded versions of the games, like this Amstel bingo card from 1960. American-made and vandal-proof, it consists of two cardboard parts sewn together. Between the two pieces is an ingenious sliding system that allows the player to open and shut the 25 numbers.
Beans
You can't get more Dutch than this bingo game, you might think. But it wasn't until the late 1920s in the United States that bingo evolved from the game Lotto. Played with numbered balls, this typically Italian lottery game has been around since the 16th century. Bingo comes from Beano, the name printed on the form on which Americans played this game – they used dried beans to cover the numbers as they were called out.
Sociable games
The most famous Dutch beer brands followed Amstel's bingo with many more games. Whether played in the pub or not, they helped facilitate social cohesion in combination with good company and a drink. In the Heineken Collection you can find Heineken's Lucifersspel (Lucifer Game, a kind of Halma), Brand's Slakkenspel (Snail Game, a board game played with beer-bottle tops), Amstel's Draai en leer je vrienden echt goed kennen (Spin to get to know your friends really well, similar to Pim-Pam-Pet), test your beer knowledge with Tap Trivia, and, another game from Amstel, Duimen Dik Spel (Tom Thumb, a competition to see who can tell the tallest stories). Numerous different packs of branded playing cards were also given away with crates of beer.