Blackjack History in Europe

Walk into a casino anywhere in the world and there is a very good chance that the first game you come across is blackjack.

Casinos from Monte Carlo to Macau. Las Vegas to Atlantic City all provide, the casual player to the hardened card shark, tables and tables of blackjack. It is an interesting story on how the game evolved into the game we know and love today.

There are a number of different names for the game and it is often referred to as 21, due to the number you need to reach to win. In France the game is called vingt et un, which for the non francophone also means 21, and in Spain, veintiuna which as I am sure you have guessed, also means the same.

And it is in the Spanish city of Sevilla that the first reference to the game was written by Miguel de Cervantes. His novel about two card cheats, who play veintiuna, is called Novelas Ejemplares. It refers to a game played in the early 17th Century that is a variant of blackjack still played today. The Spanish game differs in that they take out the 4, 10 spot cards, that is the 10 of hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs. The deck is then 48 cards and he mentions that an Ace is a 1 or 11. In the novel the aim of the game is to reach 21 without going bust and he had great experience with the game as he was partial to a hand or two, himself!

The actual game of Blackjack though is similar to the French game of vingt et un. This is the game that most people refer to when asking “where did blackjack come from?” Brought to North America by the French colonists and settlers, the game didn’t catch on at first and a special bonus was introduced to make the game more attractive to people.

It was this bonus payment that led to the name of the game becoming blackjack. It was simply if the player had an Ace of spades and a black Jack of spades or clubs then the player received a payment of 10–1.
In the 20th Century, after having been banned in the U.S at various times, blackjack made a resurgence. The state of Nevada brought the desert to life by legalizing gambling and the casino town of Las Vegas, arguably the most famous in the world, came into existence and with it the blackjack tables that make the game the most popular in casinos.

With the advent of the internet the game has spread to the computer age and is played by, and enjoyed by, millions of different people in different countries. There are movies, books and websites dedicated to the game and the interest in it will continue to grow as internet usage grows. What a journey for a game that first started in Europe in the 17th century to the present day, and long shall she continue.