History of Blackjack
The game of blackjack is thought to have originated from France in the 1700s, where it was played as a game called "ving et un", which is French for 21.
The game found its way to the U.S.A sometime after the French revolution in the 1800's. It wasn't an instant hit in the U.S and casinos had to offer extra bonuses to increase interest in the game. For example, a player would win a bonus of 10:1 if a player was dealt an "Ace of Spades" with a black jack, (Jack of clubs or spades), and thats how the game became well known as Blackack.
The game had a chequered start to its rise in popularity in the U.S. Although it was a popular game, especially for professional gamblers who could see the advantages of winning over the casino this game offered. However the gambling industry itself was full of corruption and funding organised crime. The home of Las Vegas, Nevada state had it written into its laws in 1910 that gambling was a crime. Obviously gamblers would still do all they could to gamble and this just pushed gambling underground and it became even more of a shady business.
In 1931, the state of Nevada re-legalised casino gambling and at the same time introduced a number of laws were put into place to protect players. This was the start of Las Vegas the city that would become the gambling capital of the world.
Blackjack was one of the primary games available to gamblers at this time. Widely thought by many to be purely a game of chance.
In 1953 a paper was written and published entitled "The Optimum Strategy in BlackJack" by Roger Baldwin. He showed with his mathematical calculations how a player nearly even with the house and possibly even get the edge against the casino.
Sine then a number of books have been writing looking indepth at the strategy for beating the game. This was made easier as computers could carry out the complex calculations. 1962 saw the release of a blackjack book entitled "Beat The Dealer" which included for the first time a strategy incorporating card counting techniques. The book became a best seller and was to change some of the rules of the game in the casinos. However this resulted in players purposely avoiding the new blackjack and the casinos reverted back to the original rules. The book had given the casino game alot of exposure and increased its popularity. The actual strategy of the book was too involved and complex for many people, especially the card counting, and combined with the new popularity the casinos were happily making more money.
Other even more advanced books have since been written and even films made about the authors and the lengths they have gone to, to beat the game and also the resulting consequences they have encountered. Such as Ken Uston who had computers built into the shoes of his card counting team.
Now the game of blackjack is one of the most popular online casino games available to players around the world. High speed internet is till relatively new and no doubt as access increases around the world so will the popularity of this card game. New variations of the game are constantly being introduced by online casino software providers.
|