Play Blackjack - History of Blackjack

For those of you who are into blackjack gambling, it is always a bit of fun – and good even ultimately improve your game – to find out a little bit about the history of the game too.  Indeed, learning about the history of blackjack could also be of interest to historians, just as a source of academia.  But for players who are always trying to get that elusive 21, it is just simply an added bit of fun to see how their favourite card game emerged and began.

But the thing is with the history of blackjack, is that, similar to the origins of other card games (and indeed a lot of history come to think of it), it is not so easy to pinpoint exactly how the game emerged or who began it.  So many conflicting stories have come about – especially since the Internet gave so many individuals access to the creation of information pages on the web – that we can only conjecture at what the real truth is for the history of blackjack.

Most people pretty much agree however, that the history of blackjack first originated in France. Allegedly the game was developed by the French, as a spring off from their original card game known as “chemin de fer” as well as “French Ferme.”  We’re not sure about that or that connection to the history of history of blackjack but it does seem to make sense that the game in France known as “vingt et un” (which means 21 in English) was played in the French shores in 1700 AD and arrived in America in the 1800s.  But interestingly, even though today’s blackjack game is also known as 21, the game vingt et un was actually quite a different game to what is known as blackjack today.  The goal was similar (you have to get to 21 with your cards) but the way the game was played (how the cards were dealt and the betting) was quite different from what we know as blackjack today.  In this version it was only the dealer who was able to double and if he got a natural, the other players had to pay him triple!  So looking at this story we are unsure if this is how the history of blackjack got started.

So then we can move across the waters to Italy, where others are convinced the history of blackjack originated.  Their game was called “Seven and a half” and used only 8, 9, 10 and face cards (face cards being “half”); the king of Diamonds was wild.  Looking at it that way it does not seem like this game could have had any influence at all on the history of blackjack as we know it today.  But it was a game in which the player would bust if their numbers exceeded 7 and a half (like what happens in blackjack today, but with 21).  Across in Spain, they had “one and thirty” which seemed more like blackjack today, except for the fact that rather than 21 the magic number there that had to be gained and not exceeded was 21.  Also, players each received 3 (not 2) cards to try to form this. 

So it does seem likely that the history of blackjack originated in France with vingt et un.  By 1910 the game arrived in gambling halls in Evansville, Indiana and was immediately popular, especially with the bonus payouts that were used to tempt players.  The way the game got its name was because if a player got dealt the Jack of Spaces and Ace of Spades in his or her first two cards he or she would get one of these awesome blackjack payouts.  Even though with today’s blackjack it matters not which face or 10 card is used to form the 21, the game today is still known as blackjack.  But perhaps the reason it is also called 21 is because that blackjack is no longer required.