There is little dispute that the first twenty-one games appeared in France in the early-to-mid-seventeen hundreds. The game was called vingt-un, or “twenty-one,” when it was initially introduced, and was later more commonly called oingt-et-un. The name “blackjack” was not used until the twentieth century, when the game was being played in the mostly illegal casinos in America.
Because vingt-un first appeared as a private game, and was not banked by the casinos, we will never know in which French casino the game was first played. It was the custom of the time for the casinos in Europe to bank various popular games¬notably roulette, hazard, trente-et-quarante, faro, and baccarat. Roulette was the most popular house-banked casino game in virtually all casinos where the game was legal. Hazard was a dice game that was the predecessor to craps. Faro was a variation of an older card game called bassette. But the casinos also allowed players who wanted to gamble in other popular card or dice games to do so if one of the players was willing to deal and bank the game, with the house taking a commission (usually 5 percent) on the banker’s winnings. This was most common with baccarat, the player-banked variation being called chemin-de-fer.
Apr 09
Topics: Uncategorized |
