Blackjack History - Origin of the Game

How it all began

Blackjack history is one of the most debatable points in the history of all gambling games. One may say the game tracks its roots to French game "vingt-et-un" (21), popular in French casinos in the 17th century. Others believe the history of blackjack started from Italy as Italian game “Thirty one” appeared a lot earlier, in the XIV century. Let’s find out all about these games that will help us come to our own conclusions.

Blackjack Evolution

The Game of Thirty One

The Italian game “Thirty One” had lots of similar with the game of blackjack, though the aim of it was to get a hand totaling 31 of 3 cards. The fact the game appeared in the XIV century makes this game the first predecessor of blackjack as we know it today. For the first time the game was mentioned in an anti-gaming sermon by an Italian monk – St. Bernardine of Siena. This sermon led to a public burning of dice, cards and backgammon boards. This sermon dates back to 1440.

Fun to know that the same year the first deck of cards was printed by Johan Guttenberg, famous also for being the first one to print a Bible. The deck of cards had 22 trumps and 4 suits of 14 cards. Each suit had 10 numbered cards, a King, a Queen, a Knight and a Valet (Jester).

The game “Thirty One” was also mentioned in a classic and most famous work by Francois Rabelais - “Gargantua and Pantagruel”. The game was listed in the Chapter XXII as one of the 100 games played by Gargantua: “… Then the carpet being spread, they brought plenty of cards, many dice, with great store and abundance of chequers and chessboards. There he played at flush, primero, the beast, trump…one-and-thirty…..”. The reference dates back to someday between 1532 and 1542, therefore, it came here from Italy.

The game was then mentioned in one of the stories of a world-famous Spanish writer - Miguel de Cervantes, where he described a great blackjack, or “Trentuno”, cheat. The story was called “Riconete and Cortadillo” and was published in 1613, which is over 150 years later than the first mentioning in the Bernardine’s sermon.

Seven and a Half

Another Italian game of the 17th century brought lots of features that make blackjack today the way we know and love it.

Italian game “Seven and a Half” was very popular entertainment with some similarities with the game of blackjack you will definitely notice. According to the rules of the game, it was played with only 8's, 9's, 10's and face cards. The values of cards were the following: Aces were counted as 1; Face cards all counted as a ½ and all the rest cards were counted according their values. The King of diamonds in the game was considered as a wild card. The player that got a total higher than 7.5 would automatically bust. The player who got a value of 7 ½ won and was paid more than even money. The dealer unlike in modern blackjack, was allowed to hit and stand when he wanted.

French Vingt-et-un

The game Vingt-et-un was actually different from blackjack as we know it today, though there are still many common features. The cards in this game were dealt in rounds allowing players to bet on each of the rounds. Though the aim of the game was partly the same – to get a hand of 21, the game was different as only dealer could double and if he got a Natural, all the players would pay him triple. Player’s Natural paid double and a busted hand was an automatic loser. Vingt-et-un brought blackjack the ability of Ace to represent either 1 or 11.

As you can see, the game of Vingt-et-un is more than all similar to blackjack game, therefore it is mostly all of the time considered to be a true predecessor of Blackjack.

Fun to note that Vingt-et-un was very popular among French and even the mistress of Louis XV, Madame du Barry loved this game so much, she made the king organize “Vingt-et-un” parties to make her happy. Another interesting fact is that Napoleon, who was against card games distracting his soldiers, played Vingt-et-un daily on his exile on Elba to kill time.

All in All

All things considered, there are no facts and no one can say for sure what is the origin of the blackjack. Some researchers believe this game has derived from other French games of a kind, however those games are based on accurate and well-balanced calculations. Also there is another fact that proves blackjack did not come from vingt-et-un or any other game, as casino games very rarely mutate into another games of their own accord.

Still, there are such scholars that think blackjack is the game that belongs to the family of Baccarat, Seven-And-A-Half and Vingt-et-Un, 21 and Pontoon. These games may be very familiar to you, and as there are lots of common features they all are considered to be the ancestors of modern blackjack.

Blackjack in America

From Europe, blackjack has travelled the world and came to America after French Revolution in 1789. The game became greatly popular after the casino owners offered lots of amazing bonuses (for a hand of Jack and Ace of Spades the player got a 10 to 1 payout which brings us to the origin of the name of Blackjack).

The first name for the game however was Twenty-One used in New Orleans since 1823.

As in Europe the game of blackjack was mainly the game of entertainment, professional gamblers in the USA tried to make it a source of gain by manipulating gaming odds and varying bets. There were no specific governmental regulations on the gambling industry that is why the game developed fast and became more and more popular. It continued like this until the XIXth century when the government of the US found out how gambling influenced the corruption and organized crime.

According to many researchers, the modern history of the game of blackjack has started with a Nevada Gambling Act of 1931 that legalized gambling in all Nevada casinos.

This led to many changes in the track of blackjack history. As in most of the US states gambling was forbidden, Las Vegas became the only cradle that housed gamblers from all over the world and blackjack became one of the most popular games at all casinos. The interest to the game grew and was boosted up with the book by Edward Thorp “Beat the dealer”, and you can read about it in the History of card-counting.

Modern Blackjack

The first green-felted table was made in 1919 and the game took the third place being the most popular after Roulette and Craps in 1931. In 15 years blackjack was the second most popular game, the first place being kept by Craps. The first variant of basic strategy appeared in 1958, right at the same time with the card-counting (1949 - first version, though the first strategy that gave the odds appeared in 1962 according to the history of card-counting) and blackjack became the most popular gambling game. Nowadays each and every online and land casino has not only traditional but several more blackjack variations.

Now the game of blackjack is mostly played online thus allowing millions of players from all over the world to play this well-adored game even if the nearest casino is hundreds of miles away. Online blackjack preserves all the features of a land casino game and even offers its players a lot more features. However, online blackjack leaves no chance for card counters as it is impossible to track the cards in the online mode.

History of Blackjack - Summary