History of Blackjack

Like all other casino games, blackjack also has a long history. It is assumed that the blackjack first appeared during the 17th century in France. Some people say blackjack originated from Vingt En Un, which was quite a popular game in the French casinos during that time. Afterwards, in the 1800's, it migrated to the United States. Nowadays, Blackjack can be found at many online casinos including the famous Casino Classic.

Another game that may have contributed to blackjack is the Italian casino game named "Seven and a Half". This game was known for being the first game, where the gamblers would automatically loose the game if the cards totaled over "seven and a half", which is considered to be the desired number of the game.

The game of blackjack has also a number of similarities with that of Spanish game "One and Thirty". In this game, the desired total was 31 and this game of casino was played with 3 cards, rather than 2.

There is no doubt in the fact that a striking incident in the history of blackjack took place after the French Revolution. During that time, this game was migrated to North America, where it gained a lot of popularity since at that time no card games were prohibited by law. Though the game was first played during 17th century, it started gaining popularity from the first part of the 19th century.

Though initially government banned the gambling activities, in 1931 Nevada decided to legalize casino games and in 1953 Roger Baldwin first attempted to study blackjack. Finally, in the year 1956 the first blackjack strategy guide "Optimum Strategy in Blackjack" was published in the American Statistical Association. Afterwards, Professor Edward O. Thorp investigated blackjack's statistics via science and math and in 1962; Thorp published his book - "Beat the Dealer". Here the counting system of blackjack card was elaborately written down. In the year 1963 this book took the first place in the seller list of books of the New York Times.

Some other well-known people who undertook research work to find out some of the useful blackjack playing strategies include Julian Braun ("Playing Blackjack as a Business") and Ken Uston ("Million Dollar Blackjack").