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Blackjack
History |
Gambling with playing cards spread
steadily throughout Europe after Johann Gutenberg printed the firs deck of cards
in Germany in 1440, and many of the games involved drawing cards to reach a
certain total. Although the exact relationship remains obscure, blackjack is believed to have evolved from several of these early
games.
Baccarat, with the magic numbers of 9, appeared in Italy about 1490,
followed by the game of "seven and half", which seems to
be the first game where the player automatically lost if he went over the desired numbers.
The game of "one and thirty" was first played
sometime before 1570 in Spain, and the Duke of Wellington, the Marquis of Queensbury, and Prime Minister
Disraeli all played quince (15) in Crock ford's, the famous English casino
that flourished between 1827 and 1844. From France came trente et quarante (30 and 40) and
finally vingt un or vingt et un (21 or 20 and 1), which crossed the Atlantic Ocean and
was listed in the American Hoyle
of 1875.
As first played in the United States, blackjack was a
private game, but by the early 1900s, tables for 21 were being
offered in the gambling parlours of Evansville, Indiana.
Acceptance was slow, and to stimulate interest, operators offered to
play 3 to 2 for any count of 21 in the first two cards, and 10 to 1 if the 21 consisted
of the ace of spades and either the jack of spades or the jack of clubs. This hand was
called, of course, blackjack. The 10-to-1 payoff was soon eliminated, but the term
remained, first as the name of the game itself, although 21 would have been more
appropriate.
By 1919, table covered with green baize and emblazoned
in gold letters announcing "Blackjack Pays Odds of 3 to 2" were being manufactured in
Chicago and appeared in illegal gambling halls throughout the country. The popularity of
the game grew slowly until gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1931, and blackjack soon
became the third-most-successful game, outstripping faro, but trailing both
roulette, and craps. Because of the prohibitive casino edge of 5.26
percent in roulette, discouraged players drifted away from the game, and by 1948, blackjack had become the
second-biggest casino money maker after craps.
A living legend about Ken Uston, who used five
computers that were built into the shoes of members of his playing
team in 1977. They won over a hundred thousand dollars in a very
short time but one of the computers was confiscated and sent to the
FBI. The feds decided that the computer used public information on
blackjack playing and was not a cheating device. You may have seen
this story in a movie made about his blackjack exploits detailed in
his book "The Big Player". Ken was also featured on a 1981
Sixty Minutes show and helped lead a successful legal challenge to
prevent Atlantic City casinos from barring card counters. |
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Payment
Methods |
NETeller
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