One can find evidence of gambling dating back hundreds of years. The attraction of huge bets has intrigued many individuals throughout history, and it’s likely been around almost as long as civilization itself. Although there was undeniably a precursor to modern casinos in virtually every culture, the best online casinos as we know them today, didn’t appear for quite some time.
The Ridotto Casino in Venice, which first opened its doors in 1638, holds the record for the world’s oldest continuously operating casino. So, what kinds of games did people play back then? Not slot machines, for sure. Some of the games that gamblers of long ago could have enjoyed are listed below.
1. Blackjack
Blackjack like you’d find at casinos such as https://bonus-bez-depozytu.net/unique-casino/ evolved from a game called “twenty-one,” which is still commonly used to refer to blackjack in the United Kingdom. This game’s history is shrouded in mystery, but its Spanish heritage seems inevitable. Miguel de Cervantes, best known for writing Don Quixote, is the first author to make mention of the card game. The protagonists of Cervantes’s book engage in a game of cards with the goal of achieving a total of twenty-one without going over.
Since the story was published in 1601, we may safely assume that the game was popular in both the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Later, in the late 19th century, the game found its way to the United States from Europe under the name 21.
2. Roulette
While the modern game of roulette may be traced its roots back to 18th-century France, it was actually pictured by a physicist named Blaise Pascal in the 17th. Pascal aimed to build a machine that could spin indefinitely using only the energy it produced. Although he was unsuccessful with his invention, it helped pave the way for the roulette wheel.
A variation of the game with the unmistakable creative name “roly poly” first arose in Britain in the 1720s and was outlawed there by 1739. We can trace the origins of the roulette wheel back to the latter half of the 18th century in France, when it first began to appear in gambling dens across the country. In fact, the numbers on the wheel were derived directly from the French game of Biribi, a low-stakes lottery variant.
3. Baccarat
Even though the game didn’t gain popularity until the 1600s, humans had been using playing cards for centuries. Playing cards, according to most historians, have been around since at least the 9th century in China. Those ancient card games’ rules have been lost to modern riches. But baccarat, the oldest card game still played in casinos, dates back far further. The first known version of baccarat dates back to at least the 1400s. The card game was first mentioned in the 1400s, when it was being played in Italy. Then it eventually arrived in France.
It took hundreds of years for baccarat to develop into the game we know today. Before 1907, when casinos were authorized in France, it was popular among the French aristocracy, and was typically played in private gaming rooms.
One of the earliest versions of baccarat dates back to that time period and is played with three people: baccarat banque. Later, a two-player variant of baccarat called chemin de fer emerged. Havana, Cuba, in the 1940s was the birthplace of Baccarat Punto Banco, one of the most common variations of the game played in casinos today.
