Blackjack

If you like to play roulette, blackjack or any other casino game you will know that these casino games have rolled down through the centuries to evolve as the games that we know of today. However, knowing the exact history and tracing it has still not been possible. It is believed that the game first evolved around the 17th century in ancient France.

In the earlier days, the game was known as Vingt En Un and was played in major casinos in France. Ving En Un actually means 21 in France. It is believed that even before Vingt En Un, blackjack had been played in some form in the times earlier than the 17th century too, but the exact nature of it is not yet clear. There were quite a lot of similarities between this French game and the modern day blackjack.

However, it was only after the end of the French Revolution that blackjack finally came to America. In US, the game gained quite a lot of popularity during those times. Gamblers and players recognized the fact that there was quite a lot of potential in winning at blackjack and came up with plenty of different types of strategies for winning. In the earlier years, gambling and card games were legal in the US. However, in the early 19th century under the pressure of social reforms and due to legal reasons, gambling had been outlawed in the country.

Blackjack nowadays

However, even with prohibition blackjack continued to be played in the US underground and remained a popular game. Later on in 1931, gambling was again made legal in Nevada and it was then that the casinos in Las Vegas were born. Blackjack gained even more popularity since then. An interesting point in the history of blackjack was when statistics and mathematics were first used to evaluate and analyze the game. The first ever book to be published on this subject was the Optimum Strategy of Blackjack by Roger Baldwin.

It was in the 1960s that the legendary Edward Thorp published his book which explained the famous card counting theory in blackjack. With that, the world of blackjack and casinos changed forever. Card counting was a theory which taught the players how to count cards in order to evaluate their odds during a hand. Based on these counts a player could decide whether to bet or not and how much to bet. Card counting revolutionized the way blackjack was played and many card counting teams sprung up throughout the US, including the famous MIT blackjack team.

Blackjack still continues to be one of the most famous casino card games of all times comparing to baccarat or poker. Since the card counting theory, several more scholars, writers and players have come up with their own theories and concepts of winning at blackjack.