↓ History of Blackjack

Blackjack is thought to come from France. It was known as "vingt-et-un" (twenty and one) around the 17th century. As with most card games we don't know exact origins of Blackjack and can only judge its history by its first known appearance in the modern world. It is believed that Blackjack descends from other French games with a similar tune but the grounds for this theory are shaky: card games and especially casino games involve highly precise and carefully balanced odds. It is unlikely that Blackjack in its present form could evolve into that on its own.

Blackjack is a very popular card game in Russia, where it's traditionally called "21" or "Ochko". Other names for Blackjack are "pontoon" and "California Aces". The English name "Blackjack" comes from original French game where a played was rewarded to draw a Jack of spades and an Ace of spades as the first two cards. The first card to draw was Jack and spades is black, hence the name Blackjack.

Blackjack arrived to United States soon after the French Revolution and quickly became popular. While Blackjack odds aren't all that diverse the game feels especially risky and appealing to many players, so Blackjack papidly became popular across America .Unregulated and barely oversought gambling was a perfect dwelling ground for popularity of this thrilling game until nearly the end of eighteenth century which marked the end of uncontrolled gambling era. Nevada placed a criminal law against gamblers in 1910 and things went rapidly downhill while the underground industry of gambling became criminalized, becoming one of the roots to what we today call "the gangsters". In 1931 however Nevada authorities woke up from delusion and reinstated the legality of gambling, featuring laws that were supposed to protect the players. With the rebirth of Las Vegas, Blackjack which is even now considered the most popular casino table game in United States spread like wildfire. As all other states were extremely reluctant to legalize casino gambling, Nevada has become the gambling capital of America, and Vegas is now known to everyone this side of the sun. Underground and illegal casinos in other places are not a competition to Nevada, even though there are (few) places in US outside of Nevada where casino gambling is legal. Today Blackjack is considered a classic casino game and is popular in Canadian, English, French and Russian casinos.

As computers became more and more powerful, more developments were built around the basic strategy. Newer and easier card counting strategies were developed as players realized that they could take Blackjack as a business to live off now, forcing the casinos to adopt the dubious practice of multi-deck Blackjack.

Ken Uston did the impossible. Suffice is to quote the Time Magazine: "Ken Uston is good, too good for the casinos to handle". Uston turned everything upside down and ushered a new era of Blackjack reality.

Today, Blackjack remains both most popular and most controversial game in land casinos. Thorp's and Uston's methods forced the casinos to review their approarch to games. Changes in society throughout the years rose serious questions about where the line between ethical and lawful gambling must be drawn. The argument about legality of card counting goes on and on despite a number of court cases that decided favourably to the card counters that counting is wise playing and not cheating.