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History of Black Jack
The history of black jack is thought to have begun around the beginning of the 18th century in France,
evolving out of French games such as chemin de fer and French Ferme. Some other people consider Blackjack originated in French casinos around the 1700's where it was called vingt-et-une (twenty-and-one).
The name blackjack came from an early bet (since discontinued) that paid 10 to 1 if the blackjack player got a jack of spades and an ace of spades, both black cards, as the first two cards.
From France, Blackjack made its way to the United States in the 19th century, where it was mainly found out in the American West. In 1931, gambling became legal in Las Vegas, and Blackjack became one of the staples of the new casino scene.
In the late 1950's and the 1960's mathematical information was published that showed sophisticated gamblers how they could play nearly even with the house and perhaps gain a slight edge. One of these books used mathematical analysis to teach blackjack players how to improve their odds of beating the blackjack dealer. This book by Dr. Edward Thorp's "Beat the Dealer" became a bestseller becoming so popular that it made the New York Times bestseller list. This information sparked the interest of the public and made blackjack the number one table game in casinos in the U.S. in the 1960's as it has remained right into the new millennium. The casinos made a bundle from blackjacks newly gained popularity and all of the media attention it generated.
The casinos, however, were not happy with the success of a book that told the public how to beat the house. They tried to change the rules of blackjack to make it more difficult to win. This didn't last long as people protested by not playing the new rules version of blackjack, and the resulting loss of revenue quickly forced the casinos to revert back to the old rules of blackjack.
The Casinos, however, did make changes to increase their odds. They introduced multiple decks, shuffling machines, and frequent and early shuffling among other changes. These changes plus the reality that the methods described in the books were difficult to master (if indeed you could understand them) and restored the casinos edge in the odds of blackjack that they considered acceptable.
In the 1970's, Ken Uston and his merry band of creative gamblers used hidden computers to win hundreds of thousands of dollars. Their ingenuity attracted the attention of the FBI, which examined the computers and decided that they were not cheating devices, and therefore were fair and legal. Blackjack players rushed to apply the lessons of Uston's method, but many casinos decided to adopt a multi-deck system of play, which complicated methods to improve the blackjack player's chances. Uston himself was banned from several Las Vegas casinos and was eventually found dead in a Paris apartment in 1987. But the game of Blackjack lives on, and prospers in almost every self-respecting casino, traditional or online casino.
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