History of Blackjack

One of the most popular card games in the world, Blackjack has its origins in European games such as Quinze, Vingt-et-Un, and Baccarat. Like Blackjack itself, these games require that the player reach a certain number to win a hand,

without going over that number. The combination of luck and skill that players need to succeed has made Blackjack enormously popular all over the world.

The French game called Vingt-et-Un, which originated in French casinos in the eighteenth century, is the game which most closely resembles modern Blackjack. In Vingt-et-Un, the player must reach a total of 21 without going over it, however the game is played somewhat differently – the cards are dealt in rounds, and players place bets after each round. In the late 1800s, Ving-et-Un made its first appearance in America, where it was called Twenty-One.

Twenty-one was at first only played privately, and appeared in American gambling halls in 1910. The game was initially unpopular with players, so many gambling halls initiated incentive bonuses to increase the numbers of people playing the game. One of these was a 10-1 payout for a player who held an Ace of Spades and either the Jack of Clubs or the Jack of Spades. This hand was called a “blackjack”, and although the bonus payout scheme lasted only a few years, the name stuck and the game itself came to be known as Blackjack. Also during this time, changes were made to the way the game was played, and the modern game of Blackjack was born.

Sicne then, the game has been through some interesting times. The rules of Blackjack have made the game vulnerable to a strategy called card-counting. This strategy involves assigning a number value to all the cards in the deck, and keeping a running total of what cards have been dealt as the hand progresses. Edward Thorp, Ken Uston, and Standford Wong are famous for their expertise at counting cards and beating the casinos. In the 1990s, a group of MIT students made the headlines when they became multi-millionaires with an original card-counting strategy. The casinos responded to these threats by banning card-counting, and establishing new strategies designed to distract gamblers. Thus, the fate of Blackjack and the casinos themselves are closely intertwined – those free drinks, live shows, and music are all designed to reduce the ability of players to concentrate, and reduce the likelihood of winning big.