casinos gambling

Gambling is common term for various games. Different forms of gambling have their own very distinct history but eventually find their way into each other. Gambling always was and will be an important part of history and prevailing form of entertainment for rich and poor all alike.
Sometimes gambling played a major role in history. For instance, in 1020 A.D. King Olaf of Norway and King Olaf of Sweden met to decide on the ownership of an isolated district of Hising. As they could not resolve the dispute by other means they have chosen to roll two dice. At first rolls both Kings rolled double six, at the second roll however the Swedish king rolled two dice of six and the Norway king rolled six on one die while another one cracked and showed seven!
In 1700s lotteries were established to bail out newly established British colonies. Later on, Americans used state-wide lotteries to sponsor the founding of national educational infrastructure.
History of playing cardsThe origin of playing cards is not exactly known. While earliest verifiable referrences to playing cards in Europe can be traced back to 13th century, no one is certain where exactly do they originate and how did they manage to make their way into our world. Earliest found playing card is dated 11th century and comes from Chinese Turkestan. Many scholars suggest that it must have been the Chinese who invented the original playing cards as they were the ones who also invented the paper. We know that the four decked cards evolved in islamic world even before the 13th century and were brought to the civilized world by europeans. It is the French who first introduced the design of the cards we're familiar with today together with spades, clubs, diamonds and hearts. The design of the cards was efficient enough to enable manufacturing en masse. It took the cards nearly four centuries to finally become popular as England reluctantly picked up the card designs from the French and started producing them itself. Later on, Americans started producing their own cards adding a lot to the decks and making them as we know them today: double headed court cards, varnished backs, indexes, round corners and the infamous Joker.
Soon after the Americans caught up artists found themselves a new and interesting game field and thus more card brands were born giving rise to an entire market of playing cards.
Other countries used absolutely different playing cards. For example, India had circular game tokens. Japanese and chinese also have their own versions of playing cards and their gaming concepts are based on their distinct culture and differ greatly from what we are used to.
History of BlackjackThe history of the game of Blackjack began around the beginning of the 18th century in France, where it appeared in the form of a game called "vingt et un" or "twenty one". The name "Blackjack" comes from an early version of the game in which the player received a payoff of 10 to 1 if he had a black jack of spades and a (black) ace of spades.
Blackjack made its way from France to the United States in the 19th century, where it was mainly found out in the American West. In 1931, gambling became legal in Las Vegas, and Blackjack became one of the staples of the new casino scene.
In the 1950's and 1960's, books were published that used mathematical analysis to teach players how to improve their odds of beating the dealer. One of these books, Dr. Edward Thorp's "Beat the Dealer" became a bestseller, and Blackjack became the most popular casino game in the United States.
In 1970's, Ken Uston and his merry band of creative gamblers used hidden computers to win hundreds of thousands of dollars. Their ingenuity attracted the attention of the FBI, which examined the computers and decided that they were not cheating devices, and therefore were fair and legal. Players rushed to apply the lessons of Uston's method, but many casinos decided to adopt a multi-deck system of play, which complicated methods to improve the player's chances. Uston himself was banned from several Las Vegas casinos and was eventually found dead in a Paris apartment in 1987. But the game lives on, and prospers in almost every self-respecting casino, traditional or online.
For more information, see our Blackjack History page.
History of diceThe dice as we know them today find their origin in ancient games of bone rolling. Despite of what some say, dice have traceable history that goes back into the very roots of ancient humanity. They are arguably he oldest form of gambling known to humanity. Dice games were witnessed by Marco Polo. Chingis Khan, ancient egyptian rulers, ancient greeks all were known to resort to dice rolling as means of divination and entertainment. Originally a form of divination, bone rolling slowly became a game of fortune telling and gambling. American Indians, Aztec and Maya, the africans and the Eskimo all have their own dice games.
The original dice were bones and teeth of animals, stones and sticks of wood that primitive culture of witches and shamans could use as "magical" means of divination and foretelling. The dice in the shape we know today apparently come from Koreans used in a buddhist game called "Promotion".
Along with the evolution of dice also came the art of cheating in die games. Romans were especially notorious at cheating; Augustus, Nero and Caligula all happened to be prolific dice cheaters.
By tenth century dicing was extremely popular almost everywhere. Dicing was in fact so popular that the Crusader army leaders had to prohibit dice gambling among the lower ranks of troops entirely so as to prevent the soldiers from gambling out their possessions entirely.
History of slot machinesIn the beginning of the twentieth century several innovations burst onto the scene that would change the face of cultural and leisure activities. Two originated in the American south - the blues and jazz - and one on the West coast - the slot machine. Like the first two, which quickly were adopted throughout the world and became staples of world culture, slot machines also began to appear very quickly all over the world.
The first slot machine was invented by Charles Fey in San Francisco around the turn of the century. On it were pictures of the different suits used on playing cards - hearts, spades and diamonds. Around 1910 the machine went into mass production, and the pictures on its revolving surfaces changed from being playing card suits to the now familiar fruits. These old fashioned slot machines were made out of cast iron and wood. During the sixties, the slot machine became electronic, and in the 1970's the first video slot machines were introduced. Video slots did not have the mechanical insides of the earlier machines, rather they had screens on which the wheels would turn.
Today, the most popular slot machines are virtual. The internet contains a wide variety of exciting and unusual slot machines whose function accurately simulates that of the familiar slot machines found in every casino around the world. Though lacking in physical form, today's online slot machines offer the player the same odds and excitement found in a casino, only these slots can be played anytime and on any computer.