History of Blackjack

Blackjack is now one of the most commonly played games in both land based and online casinos. It is easy to learn, exciting to play, and offers the player pretty fair odds with a small house edge, so it appeals to all kinds of casino gamblers.

The first references to a game similar to blackjack are in Spanish literature from the turn of the 17^th century, when a game called ventiuna which is the Spanish word for the number 21 was discussed in a short story by the author of Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes. This game differed slightly from the modern game in that the deck it was played with had no eights, nines or tens (this is called a Spanish ‘baraja’ deck) but like in modern blackjack the object of the game was to beat the dealer at getting as close as possible to 21 without going over.

There are later references to a similar game in Europe, showing it was a widespread pass time in France and Spain among other countries. The game of 21 didn’t get the name of blackjack until it came to the USA. In America, casinos began to offer special bonuses on certain outcomes to entice players into taking up the game, and one of these involved a ten to one payout if you got a hand with the ace of spades and the jack of clubs or the jack of spades (o.e. A black jack).

The name ‘blackjack’ stuck and became common parlance for the game, however now the term blackjack within the game refers to any hand that gives you 21 when your first two cards are dealt (i.e. any ace and any card worth ten). These days casinos still offer special side bets in some places, allowing you to bet on things like the odds of getting a queen in your hand on the side of your normal blackjack bet. There is still some controversy around the concept of ‘card counting’ which is associated with giving the player an unfair advantage in blackjack, and while not technically illegal, it is a practice that has seen people banned from casinos and which has also been the subject of several books and movies.

The advent of online gambling now allows people to enjoy playing blackjack even if they can’t make it to a casino, meaning that the game is now more widely played than ever.