A Comparative History of Blackjack vs. Other Table Games: What’s the Story of Them All?

The most popular casino table games have been around for a long time, yet they survived without too many deep changes. That remained true even as online casinos largely replaced physical establishments as the main outlets for legal gambling. Dice is certainly one of the games with the longest tradition, but blackjack, poker and roulette are also timeless classics.

It’s curious that very few people know how these games originated and developed into their present forms. We are about to change that by comparing the story of blackjack with those of other popular table games that we all love and frequently play.

The Short History of Blackjack

Modern blackjack is just the latest iteration in the long line of similar games that all featured cards adding up to twenty one. There is still some debate as to where and when exactly the game originated, but most accounts place the early stages of its development to 17^th century Europe. It became popular among the aristocrats in Spain and France before crossing the seas and arriving first to Britain and later to North America. Blackjack acquired its current name in the United States at some point in the late 19^th century, and it soon became associated with Wild West saloons and makeshift casinos. Its defining features remained largely the same, with the player always competing against the house with set odds to win. However, strategies for blackjack evolved and experienced players started approaching the game in a systematic and probabilistic manner.

How Poker Started and Became So Popular?

As opposed to blackjack, which was imported from the Old World, poker is an authentically American card game that developed along with the young nation. It does draw some inspiration from earlier European games, but its five card format and scoring system developed in the early 19^th century somewhere in the Mississippi River basin. It didn’t take long for the deceptively simple game that includes a psychological showdown to become extremely popular all over the continent and abroad. Diversification of rule systems started shortly thereafter, and within one hundred years of its invention poker already had a number of variants. This process still continues, as evidenced by the availability of many different formats of poker, most of which are frequently played for large amounts of money. In the 21^st century, the game acquired mainstream prominence and a status of a skill-based contest.

What’s the Deal with the Roulette Wheel?

Few people know that the iconic spinning wheel with numbers from 0 to 36 has a famous inventor. The physicist Blaise Pascal invented its early version by accident around 1650 while trying to create a perpetual motion machine. He may have failed in his original quest, but the French inventor definitely set things into motion that never stopped moving since. Roulette became widely available in 19^th century France, becoming one of the most profitable casino games. The game was adopted all over Europe and North America within several decades, with its basic rules and odds remaining mostly the same. Since the game is very easy to learn and includes a dramatic element of waiting for the wheel to stop, it was always very attractive to casual players and those relying on luck to hit a big payout.

The Role of Casinos Is Setting Fixed Rules

All of the aforementioned table games have one thing in common – they were formalised within casino establishments after ‘living in the wild’ for a while. It’s not hard to understand why the casinos needed unified rules, since this makes it easier for first time visitors to participate and eliminates a source of potential misunderstandings. Blackjack and roulette in particular are big money makers for the casinos as they pit the players directly against the dealer while giving the house a sizable edge. On the other hand, players appreciate the predictable odds and can use them as a foundation for developing a strategy. However, while casinos in the same location usually had similar rules for table games, this wasn’t the case internationally. As a result, all of the table games we covered exist in many forms that might differ slightly in some important aspects.

How Are Table Games Evolving in the Online Era?

The evolution that started in the casinos of Monte Carlo and Las Vegas continues to this day on interactive online gambling sites. You can still find classic table games at every casino site, but there are multiple versions of blackjack Canada based players can try. Game developers are constantly launching new titles, often using a less-known rule system to keep their creation unique. In recent years, table games have been successfully translated into live dealer mode, which allows players to use a webcam to watch human dealers in a studio draw the cards or spin the wheel. Innovation is certainly a good thing, but for many gamblers table games are good just the way they are and technology is there only to make them more convenient. In other words, we love the games we grew up with but don’t mind seeing a smart tweak that makes the game more exciting.