China - Domino

Paper was invented in China and it is likely that playing cards also originate from that ancient empire. Domino cards, which are the earliest recorded type of playing cards, represent the scores thrown by a pair of dice, much like today's domino tiles.

1370 - Europe

By the 1370s, playing cards had reached Europe in a form that is recognizable today, with a pack consisting of 52 cards with suits of swords, polo-sticks, cups and coins. Each suit contained the numbers one to ten, and three court, or picture, cards. Originally the court cards were non-figurative, but under European influence they soon became kings, knights and valets. Queens later replaced the knights, and in England the valet became known as a jack.

The earliest cards were hand-painted with figures copied from manuscripts, but as printing developed the designs were continually altered and redrawn. There were national variations in the suit symbols. Italy adopted coins, cups, swords and batons; while hearts, leaves, bells and acorns appeared on German cards. The symbols on modern playing cards (hearts, spades, diamonds, clubs) originate from France.

New Games - Baccarat

With the widespread availability of cards people began to invent card games. New games were continually being devised, many of which were played for money. In Europe, games like baccara proved popular among members of the aristocracy, who gambled for huge stakes in luxurious surroundings.

Although baccara has its origins in medieval Italy, it soon spread to France, where it was called "chemin de fer" (meaning railway, due to the action of the card box or shoe passing around the table on "tracks"). Later a slightly different version, called "punto banco", arrived in England. Chemin de fer soon spread from Europe into Latin America. It was introduced to Las Vegas in the 1950s as a result of the closing of Cuban casinos. In Vegas it became knows as shimmy, but is now mostly referred to as punto banco. Today, most casinos around the world offer a version of the game.

New Games - Poker

Poker is derived from the Persian game of "as nar" and was probably based on the dice game "tali", which was played by the Romans. Tali is based on the ranking of throws where, for example, three of a kind beats a pair. A variation, called "poker dice", is still played as a pub game in continental Europe. Persian sailors taught French settlers in New Orleans how to play "as nar" and they developed a version which combined elements of the French game "poque" and the German game "pochen", and became known as poker. The version was soon being played everywhere in the USA, from Mississippi river boats to the saloons of the Old West.

Many variations of the game started to appear. In 1911 US legislation prohibited stud poker but ruled that draw poker was a game of skill and therefore was not illegal. This resulted in new draw games being invented. Nowadays casinos offer a wide choice of poker games including five-card stud, seven-card stud, Texas hold'em and Omaha.

Blackjack derives from the game "twenty-one", the origins of which are not known. When it was first introduced to casinos in the USA the game was not very popular, so the casinos started to offer odds of ten to one if 21 was made with the first two cards dealt to a hand (comprising and ace plus either the jack of spades or the jack of clubs - the "black jacks" from which the name derives). These higher odds no longer apply for 21 made with a blackjack, but while any card with a face value of ten, together with an ace, counts as a score of 21, blackjack has become the name by which the game is known.

Blackjack began to raise in popularity after research undertaken by a trio of Americans showed that the casino's advantage could be overcome. Roger Baldwin was the first to begin analyzing blackjack and in 1956 published "The Optimum Strategy In Blackjack". In 1962 Edward Thorp further developed the strategy into the first card counting techniques, which were published in his book "Best the Dealer". Julian Braun added to the earlier research on basic strategy in his book "Playing Blackjack as a Business".

Casinos retaliated by making blackjack more difficult, implementing measures which make it harder for card counters to gain an advantage. As a result, blackjack has become a battle between players, who use a variety of card counting methods, and casinos, which try to handicap players by using multiple card decks, frequent shuffling and surveillance. Many casinos ban players whom they suspect of card counting, despite court rulings that the practice is not illegal.