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Probably, the most controversial moment concerning black jack history is the fact of its appearance itself: two countries aspire to be the motherland of this world-famous casino game of skills - Italy and France. Some games existed in these countries which could be predecessors and origins of blackjack card game as they have many features in common:

  • Thirty-One: Italy (the 15th century)
  • Seven and a Half: Italy (the 17th century)
  • Vingt Et Un: France (the 17th century)

But, anyway, the most significant moment of black jack history started after the French Revolution of 1789 when blackjack came to America and began to develop into the casino game we play and like today.

Origins

Game

Country

Description

thirty one game

Italy

Italy Flag

The year of 1440: an Italian monk gives a sermon against of gambling and mentions the game of Thirty-One there. The objective of that game was to get 31 points from a hand of 3 cards; moreover, this game was mentioned in such books as Gargantua and Pantagruel (Francois Rabelais) and Riconete and Cortadillo (Miguel de Cervantes).

Vingutuin game

France

France Flag

This French game had more similarities with modern blackjack than other two ones: the objective was to get 21 points though only a dealer had a right to double; as well as modern blackjack, Vingt Et Un counted an Ace as 1 or 11 points. This game was very popular among the kings of that time: Louis XV, Napoleon etc.

Seven and half

Italy

Italy Flag

This entertaining game had many similarities to modern blackjack though some features differed of course: a dealer had a right to hit and stand when s/he wanted; the differences were also about the card values: an Ace was counted as 1, face cards - 0,5 and all other cards - according to their values.

Blackjack in America

Blackjack card game came to America after the French Revolution in 1789 and became popular there at once: government did not control the gambling sphere much then, so, players soon understood it was easy to get big money out of blackjack. It was the development of corruption and crime, and, finally, the US government prohibited gambling. Blackjack became the illegal game at once.

In 1931 gambling was legalized in Nevada, and all gamblers began to visit Las Vegas and beat casinos out of big money; the 20th century became the beginning of the modern black jack history: card counting technique and other beating systems appeared in 1958 and were developed by experts, many blackjack variations were born, a lot of books were written where all secrets of blackjack were revealed, online blackjack appeared and became even more popular than a land-based one….

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  • Online Blackjack

    Blackjack gained worldwide popularity and played in land casinos as well as online.

Being a highly popular casino game, no weird there exist lots of funny jokes about blackjack.

Blackjack Jokes