The History of Blackjack

Blackjack is one of the most popular and easily recognized card games in the world today. A favourite at casinos across the globe, online blackjack is now offered by a whole range of sites such as Riverbelle or classiccasinos.com.
The ancient Chinese played card-like games using paper money. Similar card games spread throughout the East and on to Europe in the first millennium. During the fifteenth century the four suits of spades, diamonds, clubs and hearts originated in France. Spanish gamers favoured one-and-thirty a game in which players tried to score 31 using a combination of their dealt cards and community cards. Though both these games had very different rules to the blackjack of today they give us the first hints of what was to come.

By the 1800s Europe was gripped by casino fever with royalty flocking to the tables. French casinos popularized Quinze in which the aim of the game was to score 15. Another popular game was Trente-et-Quarante, which is still played today and set the card goal at 31.

However it is in the game Vingt-Un (21) that we find the clearest precursor to Blackjack. Cards were dealt in rounds with accompanying betting as opposed to the -up-front wager in modern blackjack. The game crossed the Atlantic in the late 1800s to the United States but at first met with little success. Casinos tried offering various bonus payouts to encourage interest. One such bonus was a 10-to-1 payout if the player's hand consisted of the ace of spades and a black Jack (either the Jack of clubs or the Jack of spades). This hand was called a "blackjack" and the name stuck even though the bonus payout was soon abolished.
The ploy worked and by the 1930s blackjack tables were drawing the crowds. Eventually casino owners dropped the blackjack bonus but the name stuck and the game has remained a firm favourite ever since.

During the 1960s, blackjack was given a further boost when the first probability theories were developed about the game. These theories highlighted the best strategies to play depending on the player's hand and the displayed dealer's card. In addition 'card counting' was explored and for the past forty years various players have demonstrated how the correct strategy together with practiced skill can tip the odds towards the player.

Blackjack books such as Beat the Dealer by Edward Thorp and Stanford Wong's Professional Blackjack proved hugely successful adding to the popularity and profile of the game. The awareness that blackjack is not simply down to luck but that skill and experience can really make a difference has inspired gamblers ever since.

The profile of blackjack has recently been raised even higher with the release in the late 90's of the bestselling book Bringing Down the House. The book is based on the exploits of a group of students from the MIT who set up a gambling team and won millions of dollars playing blackjack in the mega-resorts like Las Vegas.

Bringing Down the House has now been turned by Sony Pictures into the first large-budge movie about Blackjack. Titled 21 the fact-based story stars Kevin Spacey and centres on the six students and their story of gambling success. Read an interview with Mike Aponte one of the MIT team here
As online casinos developed blackjack was quickly added to the games available. Today online blackjack is one of the biggest and most widely played gambling game on the Internet, with Grosvenor Casino, amidst many others, providing online casino and games.