Out of all the different casino games, blackjack is one of the most popular casinos games worldwide. A large part of its popularity may play a part in the fact of the games simplicity. Although the game requires great skill, and still to this day there are many guides on how to play blackjack and ways to test your skill on the game. It is still a game that most people are able to pick up very quickly which itself encourages people to play. Although they may not be the best players the concept of the game; to get to 21 is easy to understand.
Another reason that blackjack is such a worldly popular game is that it gives players the impression that they have control over the outcome whereas other casino games like slot machines and roulette is mostly down to luck and chance. Although luck plays an important part in the hand players are dealt, skill is needed to get as close to 21. Blackjack is one game that many experienced players feel as though they can beat the game through card counting.
Although card counting isn’t illegal, casinos do frown upon it and if you are suspected of card counting they can ban you from the casino tables. It is completely possible to turn the odds into your favour by counting cards but it is not easy to do. The vast majority of people who count cards do tend to fail, even if you are one of the few who can successfully count cards the advantage that you may gain is fairly small. Of course not everybody who plays blackjack think they can beat it, many play as it is one of the most fun games to play in the casino. The fun element is largely down to speed at which the game gets played, as it is incredibly fast paced. Hands in blackjack go very quickly so it seems like there is always something happening within the game.
Blackjack is a popular game as it is rather social, since the players are not playing against each other but rather against the dealer. The basics of blackjack are fairly easy to learn, then there are intricacies to the game that have to be learned and the optimal strategy is not that easy to pick up but you can start playing with a basic knowledge of the game and build skill.
The history surrounding the game blackjack is heavily debated as there are some references that it developed in China, when paper money was shuffled in certain ways to represent symbols and values and then it was soon developed into a game. Playing cards then spread across the globe to Europe. The first recorded mention of the game blackjack was found in the work of Miguel Cervantes who described two cheating gamblers in Seville playing the game veintiuna, which translates to 21 in Spanish.
The game became hugely popular in Spain and France, both coining it veintiuna or vingt-et-un in French which is supposed to be the ancestor of modern blackjack we know and play today. It spread throughout Europe, and reached America, when the U.S renamed it to blackjack. The game became widespread in North America with French colonists in the early 1900’s, the rules began to change and take shape of a more common blackjack we recognize today.
Then in 1931 Nevada was the first state to legalize gambling in large casinos, and after that there was a snowball effect of big casinos rising after the Second World War. The exact point at which the game of veintiuna turned into blackjack is difficult to pinpoint, but the game has evolved and gained a huge amount of popularity throughout the globe.
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