There are more than 121,000 lanes in 5,700 centers in the United States. Bowling is one of the oldest sports in the world. It was played in Egypt as early as 5,200 B.C. Established in 1912, Bowler s Journal is the oldest monthly sports magazine in America. The ABC Tournament is the largest annual men s sports event in the world. The WIBC Tournament is the largest annual women s sports event in the world.
Bowlers donate far more money to charity than any other group of athletes.
The bowling industry spends far more money than any other sport on airlines, hotels, restaurants, and rental cars. Thousands were built. Automatic score keeping was introduced in the late 1970 s, appealing to the casual bowler by making the chore of score keeping as easy as pressing one button at the beginning of a game. Bowling entered the electronic age. In the 1980 s, synthetic lanes were developed, replacing maple and pine with phenolic resin.