With Edwin Lowe's immediate success in the Bingo game market, others followed suit and created their own versions of the game. Why wouldn't they? People saw just what this had done for Lowe. While he could have trademarked the name Bingo, he couldn't really trademark the game as versions of it were being played elsewhere under a different name.
Lowe instead asked people wishing to call their version of the game Bingo to pay him $1 a year. This is how the name Bingo became a term widely used by anyone wishing to create his own cards and supplies.