The Background and History of Blackjack
Blackjack is one of the most popular card games and can be found in almost all the casinos. Like any other card game there is a unique history behind blackjack. It is believed that it was the French who first invented the game. In the 17th century a game was very popular in the French casinos, it was known as ‘Vingt En Un’. Modern form of blackjack is believed to have been originated from it though the rules now are much different from that of ‘Vingt En Un’.
In Vingt En Un the dealer could double and the players had to bet after each round unlike modern form of casino blackjack. But like in the traditional blackjack games and in some variants of blackjack, the goal was to get a total of 21. The very name ‘blackjack’ owes its origin to a particular feature of Vingt En Un. It was a special payout when a player had an Ace of spades and a hand of Jack.
Another popular game called ‘Seven and a half’ which was played in Italy also contributed to the development of modern day Blackjack. Seven and a half was only played with the face cards and the 7s, 8s and 9s which were called the regular cards. The objective of this game was to make a hand of seven and a half points; the face cards had a value of half points while the regular cards were valued at one point.
It was during the French Revolution that the game traveled west to North America. During that time there were no laws to prohibit card games. In spite of that initially the game could not attract many players. The different casinos tried to attract the players by giving different kind of bonuses. However over time many gamblers understood the potential in the game and began to take interest.
A great blow to the development of this classic card game came when the US Government put several laws to restrict gambling as it believed it was having a corrupting influence on the society. Blackjack then became an underground game but it was still played. In 1931, the state of Nevada legalized gambling and thus blackjack returned in the newly born and famous city of Las Vegas.
In the present day it is a popular game and is played in different parts of the world like the US, Europe, Canada and Australia. Many new variants have been invented to make the game more interesting. With the coming of the internet, the online casinos have also begun to offer blackjack now.
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