History of Blackjack

France

Vnigt En Un is the grandpa of blackjack as we know it today. This is a game popular in France during the 17th century. In direct translation the name of this game means 21. It is estimated that this is the origin of blackjack. This is the place where most of the rules present in today's blackjack came from.

Italy

In Italy, there was a similar game to blackjack. It was called Seven and a Half. Face cards were used along with number cards, like 7, 8 and 9. The rules were pretty simple. You had to collect seven and half points. To complete that you must know that all face cards are counted as a half point and all of the number cards were counted as one point.

The King of Diamonds could be used to substitute every card in the game. The term "bust" is present in today's blackjack but it originated from the term "busted", which is used to describe a situation, where the player has exceed the seven and a half point. This means that these two games are connected.

Modern Times

Blackjack was hunted by the law's authorities because up to a point it was illegal. During the 20th century it became one of the most popular underground games, which made so many people happy. Finally, everything changed because of the state of Nevada. The people there decided to legalize gambling, which made the game of blackjack even more popular. This happen in the year of 1931 and that's how the city of Las Vegas was created.

The year of 1953 will stay in the history books as the first attempt of mathematicians to try to understand the game better. It was Roger Baldwin who carried out the first experiments on this subject. They used statistical analysis to predict the outcome of the game. Also, math was used to determine the player's edge and house's edge. The findings were available to the public in the year of 1956. They were known under the name "Optimum Strategy in Blackjack". This is how the first blackjack strategy was born.