The History of Blackjack and Where it was First Developed

No matter what casino you go to around the world, you will see that there is one gambling game that is the staple of any gambling establishment, and that is blackjack. While many other forms of gambling throughout history were created more so for the excitement and high chances to win big money, blackjack was created to be a thinking mans game. The basic rules of the blackjack game is that receiving 2 cards with the hope that you can get as near to 21 as possible, and the beauty here is that the dealer has to stop at 17.

No one knows for sure when the first blackjack game was played but there are some clues that put its origin all the way back to the early 17th century or earlier. Researchers found the first clues that pointed them to this era in time in a book that was written by a man named Miguel de Cervantes. Cervantes is very well known by literary enthusiasts because he is the written that authored the famous book about a delusion Don Quixote who was a man suffering from great delusions who went on make believe adventures in his mind. The story that had the inferences to blackjack were written right around the turn of the 17th century in Spain so the actual game itself was probably played well before that time.

Blackjack since then started to spread all across the globe from the old world to the new world of the Americas where it now is a staple in every casino across the nation. It hit national notoriety when Dr. Edward Oakley Thorp who was a mathematics professor at MIT actually came out with a card counting system to consistently beat the blackjack table. He got to the point where he was winning more then he was losing and eventually he was banned from gambling in all casinos.

In closing, even though there is no evidence of when the first blackjack game was played, it most likely happened right before the 17th century.

I love writing articles on such interesting topics such as online casino, gambling and poker. Please feel free to look through my many related gambling articles.