Gambling has been embedded into the overall consciousness of humanity since the dawn of society as a whole. The act of playing games of chance has become somewhat of a tradition to humans everywhere, which is why gambling is prevalent in one form or another. Although different ancient cultures had various ways of conducting their gambling activities, there are some common gaming traits that were present in all games, regardless of their origin.
An interesting fact is that the act of gambling predates the creation of casinos by several thousand years. By many, the oldest concept of gambling was to stake something of value in hopes of predicting the outcome of an event of chance. While some of the oldest games are usually proto-board games, perhaps the earliest pre-historic examples of gambling involved a “heads or tails” mechanism.
These were nothing more than flat stones or engraved sticks used as a gameplay mechanism that generated one of two expected results. Although rudimentary, even these items allowed players to feel the “adrenaline rush” that is attributed to all gambling activities – especially when there was something of value at stake, such as animal leather, stone arrowheads, or anything else that had trading value in those ancient times.
Sticks, stones, and bones – those were the first items that were modified and altered in order to be used as a “result generation device” for the sake of completing a specific game phase. One of the most interesting gambling tools is the simple six-sided dice! Those were created approximately 3,000 years ago, and their cubic shape and number of pips have not changed ever since. While sheep knucklebones and engraved sticks have fallen out of favour in casinos everywhere, the simple six-sided dice were the only result-generating items that remained practically unchanged for thousands of years.
Although ways of gambling have existed for many thousands of years, the most modern gambling games we know and love today, which can be played and witnessed in every casino pretty much everywhere worldwide, are usually considered quite modern. Other titles have managed to endure the tests of time, and exist in their primal form even today. Read more about them below.
Modern-day Craps is a game that is considered to be brought to Europe in the 12th century. After hundreds of years, its final “casino form” appeared for the first time in the 19th century. Gambling historians often speculate that the game’s true origins come from the ancient Rome, although there have been dice games from the same time period that were known to appear from a lot of ancient Asian countries as well.
Originating from the British card game “21”, Blackjack is a type of game that is ideal for both beginners and seasoned casino players. The most commonly known version of the game is said to have originated somewhere around the 1600s; however, the creation of its more modern form occurred around the early 1900s. A few years later, the first American casino (the Golden Gate Hotel and Casino) opened its doors to the public, and as you would have already guessed, this establishment was the one to feature the first American Blackjack game.
Roulette is often considered to be a “modern casino game”, as it was invented somewhere in the 18th century. It is speculated that the first roulette wheel’s inventor was none other than the famous French mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal. The story goes that Pascal created the wheel as a way to study perpetual motion. Not long after its creation, the wheel was utilised in the hybridisation of a new type of gambling game; which is the same type of roulette that we all know and play to this day. It wasn’t until at least a hundred years later before casinos started to modify and create their own custom versions of the game.
With a 5,000-year-old origin story, as one of the oldest board games in humanity’s history, Backgammon is considered a rarity when it comes to casinos. Although meant to be only a two-player game, it was still experienced under gambling rules. Players would gamble an entrance fee for the chance of winning their opponent’s money, while spectators (if they were allowed) would place a wager on one or the other player, as Backgammon is a game where a “draw” result is impossible.
With the creation of the Internet, casino games took a life on their own, and today have gained an even greater popularity among people of all walks of life. The interesting thing is that the Internet gave a new life to old casino games and allowed the creation of many new ones.
The act of gambling on any sort of game in a public setting has long been regarded as an act that only the elite of society was allowed to play. In those times, it was common for high society trends to be passed down to people from the poorer society circles; which is how even the most popular casino gambling games became famous among everyone.
When it comes to the “golden classic” games that are always associated with a casino, they will always be the most popular games worldwide. History has proven that throughout the creation and evolution of the gambling industry, regardless of how interesting or fascinating a specific version of roulette might look, its two most popular versions (American and European) will always remain as the most popular ones worldwide.
We should mention that although classic casino games will always be present, that doesn’t mean that a new standard might emerge in the future; after all, the majority of these games are hybrids of much older, more ancient gambling activities that have simply concluded their logical development. If you’re someone who engages in occasional casino gaming, you will definitely be looking forward to seeing how the industry will surprise you!
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