Blackjack History

Ah, Blackjack. Next to Poker and Baccarat perhaps the most famous and popular casino card game ever. With Roulette and slots almost synonymous with Las Vegas. Movies made about card counting, about legendary names such as Thorp or Arnold Snyder are part of popular culture. With books written about basic strategy and thousands of players playing hundreds of thousands of games every day in online casinos, we feel it's worth looking into the history of one of the most popular card games in the world. 

An Old Game from the Old World

Blackjack is derived from an English card game called twenty-one. Which in turn was an adaptation of the French game vingt-un. Which in turn most likely has its roots in Spain, perhaps as early as the late 16th century. Sounds complicated? Well let us dive a bit deeper then.

Before it started being played in French casinos, where the Blackjack game was called vingt-un or vingt-et-un (twenty-one), it was probably played everywhere on the Iberian peninsula, since the earliest written reference of a card game of similar rules are thanks to none other than Miguel de Cervantes of Don Quixote fame. You see, old Miguel himself was quite the gambler, and since most people write about what they know, he of course wrote about gamblers! In his collection Novelas Ejemplares he writes about a couple of cheats on a romp through Seville especially proficient at "veintiuna", a game with the objective of reaching 21 points, or getting as close to it, without getting over. There you have it.

One can only imagine the wild events surrounding the game. By the time it had spread across casinos in France, dozens of card counters and other types of cheats must have swarmed the tables every night. Vingt-et-un was all the rage for avid card players, and between the frenzy at the Roulette tables and heated arguments over hole cards and side bets, we are sure card counting was the least of anyone's problems. Vingt-et-un was en vogue!

The game had made its journey to Britain by the end of the 1780s, where it was still called vingt-et-un or vingt-un and arrived in the United States sometime during the early 1800s. By then it was called twenty-one. We know this because of the first printed rule set published in 1825, which itself was a reprint of English rules from decades earlier. Finally, Blackjack formed as its own variant arising in the States from the English vingt-un.

Blackjack in the United States

There are a few popular and resilient myths surrounding Blackjack, where twenty-one was used to lure more people into casinos and gambling halls using increased payouts and special bets. Other myths consist of Blackjack only making its way over the big pond after the World War I. In reality, port cities like New Orleans already had legalised, regulated card games in the 1820s, so almost a hundred years before Las Vegas even existed. We are also almost sure that as soon as regulations were put in place, a house edge naturally settled in. Which is why we also believe that card counting was a regular occurence back then. Besides card counters and other power players, basic strategies must also have been discovered by then, since casino games were a backbone of many livelihoods already.

Blackjack was also one of the main drivers behind the golden era of casinos in the United States. The name itself is suspected to have been brought along by prospectors during the Klondike gold rush. You see, back then players would receive a special payout for any hand containing an Ace and any 10-point card. A common mineral at the time was Sphalerite, also called Zincblende, which was called Blackjack due to its hue under sunlight. Since it was often found along with silver or gold deposits, miners associated the name with the top prize awarded for an Ace and a black Jack - a name that stuck.

Blackjack History was made in the 1950s, when mathematicians first released a seminal paper titled "The Optimum Strategy in Blackjack" in the Journal of the American Statistical Association. The paper eventuelly led to researcher Ed Thorp publishing his famous work "Beat the Dealer" in 1963, which is still considered recommended reading for anyone even remotely interested in the topic. It introduced concepts like card counting, probabilities for side bets and mathematically "correct" approaches for splits for example. It truly can be said that the game of Blackjack changed with Thorp's publications. Speaking of which, if you wish to brush up your knowledge about Blackjack strategy or terminology, feel free to use our related posts here on our blog!

Thorp went on to study probabilities further, becoming one of the lead experts in the field of fund managements, probability theory and the science of using small correlations for reliable predictions in the financial sector. His work still defines many mechanisms and speculations on the stock market to this day!

Blackjack in the Age of the Internet

Nowadays Blackjack is still a casino favourite and has grown its playerbase by insane rates with the advent of online casinos. Nowdays you can play Blackjack on your smart phone while commuting to work. You can practice basic strategy while laying in bed, sharing the same table with other players from around the world! Online Blackjack in our online casino for example is available for fun as well as real stakes Blackjack anytime you want, full optimized for mobile devices and OS agnostic. All you need is a browser and knowledge of basic strategy and terminology - which we will cover on our site soon!

While Las Vegas and other cities have begun to network in order to protect themselves against card counters and hole card peekers, online Blackjack solves the problem in an elegant and much less intrusive way. Instead of a human dealer shuffling deck after deck and keeping track of bets and overall bankrolls, sophisticated computer programs are employed to ensure an authentic casino game experience. These programs are strictly controlled by several agencies and government bodies, ensuring every Blackjack game you play on these platforms to be as authentic as the real thing. Admiral Casino is no exception.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why is it called Blackjack?

The name Blackjack derives from the name miners and other folk gave the top prize of the game back during the gold rush era. A mineral called Sphalite was commonly called Blackjack, which in turn was used for the highest-paying hand in the game in those days - an Ace and a black Jack.

• Is it called Blackjack or 21?

Nowadays the card game is commonly called Blackjack, but it and 21 can and are used interchangeably. 21 derives from the French name for the card game it was derived from, vingt-et-un.

• Why is counting cards illegal in Blackjack?

Card counting is not illegal as long as players manage to pull it off without the help of external devices. However, casinos are free to ban players caught doing so and have begun sharing player profiles in networked databases.