Blackjack is one of the most popular online casino games in the world. It is an easy and a simple game to play in which each player plays against a dealer. Blackjack has been played since centuries and throughout these years it has gone lot of changes. Although the researchers have not been able to find the history clearly but still it has been found that the inception of Blackjack occurred in 17th century.
Blackjack in France
Blackjack originated in 17th century in France from a game called Vingt En Un which is different from the modern Blackjack in some aspects. Unlike in modern Blackjack in Vingt En Un betting was required after every round and only dealer had the chance to double. The term Blackjack has been evolved from a special payout feature of Vingt en Un in which one had a hand of a Jack and an Ace of spades.
Blackjack in Italy
In Italy a game called Seven and a Half was played with the help of Regualr Cards(7’s, 8’s and 9’s) and the face cards. In this the face cards carried half a point and regular cards carried one point and the players were required to attain seven and a half points. The players were ‘busted’ if they exceeded seven and a half points. The term ‘Bust’ used in modern Blackjack came from ‘Seven and a half’.
Blackjack in North America
After French Revolution Blackjack became a popular game in North America. But with the growing professional gamblers using Blackjack basic strategy to win the game, the government took the decision of banning Blackjack in US in 19th century. Due to the high restrictions the game gained more popularity which lead to legalization of gambling and finally in 1931 Las Vegas came into existence.
Revolution in Blackjack
In 1953, Roger Baldwin made the first effort to study Blackjack. In 1956 a book named “Optimum Strategy in Blackjack” was published. It was the first blackjack strategy guide developed from statistics theory and calculating methods . In 1962 Professor Edward O. Thorp published a book “Beat the Dealer” which was a polished version of Baldwin’s work. The work of Julian Braun, an IBM employee was published in the second edition of “Best the dealer”. Various methods were used by Ken Uston and MIT Blackjack team to earn good amount of money from the casinos. This was later detected by Griffin Investigation and their playing was banned.
Modern Blackjack
With the introduction of the Online Blackjack has become popular in US, Canada, Australia, Europe and many other places in the world. Online Blackjack offers the players with Blackjack similar to land based casino game along with extra features. These days Blackjack is played in various forms like Atlantic City Black Jack, Double Exposure Black Jack, European Blackjack,etc. in very casino all around the world.