The first standardized deck of cards was made by Johann Guttenberg in 1440. With the invention of the printing press, Guttenberg printed a deck of 50 cards. And with that first set of cards, the origins of blackjack soon followed.

Origins of Blackjack

Several card games are given credit for the development of modern day blackjack.

Baccarat is most likely the game that gave birth to blackjack, simply because that game has been around nearly as long as that first deck of cards. It was invented in Italy in the 1490s and the goal of the game was to have the cards add up to a total of 9.

Another Italian card game that blackjack can trace its ancestry to is Seven-and-a-half. This game was played with cards 8 and higher. The ten and face cards were counted as Half, and if players went over a total of seven-and-a-half, they lost. This was the first card game where going over a pre-determined total meant the player went bust.

As time went on, other countries developed games that required adding up cards and avoid going over a certain number. Spain had One-and-Thirty, which first appeared around 1570. In the early 1800s, Quinze was the rage in France. This game of 15 was so popular in France’s casinos that royalty would disguise themselves so they could play at the tables.

A game called Vingt-un was introduced to America in the late 1800s. This game is known more familiarly to today’s Americans as 21. Twenty-one was initially a parlor game when it first arrived in the U.S., but in 1910, a casino in Evansville, Indiana introduced it as a new gambling game.

How 21 Became Blackjack

As a casino game, 21 was not very popular, but the casinos were reluctant to retire the game. So the houses began experimenting with jack pots and bonus pay outs. One bonus that the casinos came up with was a 10 to 1 pay out if the player got 21 with the Ace of Spades and one of the blackjacks. This hand was called, obviously, blackjack. The name stuck, even though the bonus was dropped. Apparently the name blackjack was more intriguing than 21 because with the name change, the game began to flourish, becoming one of the most popular of all casino games.

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