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Many of today’s modern casino games will be only the latest in a long line of gambling activities that date back to the earliest records of civilization. Gambling artifacts have been uncovered from ancient societies in China and Italy as well as in Egypt, where ivory dice dating to the period before 1500 B.C. have been discovered. More than 3000 years later, a more modernized pair of dice was being used in private gaming halls throughout 18th century England in the earliest type of today’s popular game of craps.
Keno, another among the earliest forms of gambling and one with several of the worst odds for the player, is said to have originated in ancient China throughout the Han Dynasty. The very first Chinese version of the game featured 120 characters drawn from a popular poem of the time. Although other kinds of a lottery were played later in Europe, the introduction of Keno to the united states was created by Chinese sailors visiting San Francisco. The Americanized version used numbers as opposed to characters and 80 boxes in place of 120 in much the exact same form as is found in casinos today.
Early forms of playing cards dating back to the 9th century have also been found in China. But when playing cards began to be used later throughout Europe some of the intricate designs on the Asian variety were replaced with cards representing men of royalty. Not until the 1500s did a female break in to the designs when the French replaced one of the Kings in their deck with a Queen. That was among the first designs of the common 52 card deck that we still use today for some of the most common casino games including poker and blackjack.
We could also thank the French for inventing another one of the bastions of casino games, the game of roulette. The version of the original French wheel from 1842 had only one zero. And as the winnings generated through the single zero wheels were sufficient to launch the country of Monaco towards its fabulous wealth, the casinos in America felt they needed to add yet another zero to the wheel to be able to raise the house’s advantage. Today, any serious fan of online roulette knows to search out the European wheel rather than the American wheel because of the better odds for the player.
As with many of today’s modern casino games, the true beginnings of the game of baccarat are disputed. Most feel that the game originated in either France or Italy, but few doubt that the modern version of the game may be traced, again, to the French. The game, known in France as Chemin de Fer was extremely popular among nobility in the 16th century and also by the 18th century it had get to be the most popular game along the French Riviera. Baccarat finally gained popularity in the U.S. when it was introduced at the Sands casino in Las Vegas within the late 1950s.
The fun and excitement in many of today’s modern casino games may be much more enjoyable when you become aware of the long and often colorful history behind so many.
