A Brief History of Gambling And Casinos

When you take a close look at the origin of Mankind, you will notice that it is parallel to gambling. For a long time everywhere that there were groups of people there was some gaming that went on. In this article, you’re going to take a look at the history of gaming and how casinos both brick-and-mortar and online casinos came to be. Although we will not look at every detail of gaming were going to make some of the important dates that are significant gambling history.

Poker Chips and Cards

Early evidence of gambling

So, wondering about the brief history of gambling and casinos? According to research done by archaeologists, it is believed that the earliest evidence of gambling can be found in ancient China. The concrete evidence found involved tiles which were unearthed that date back to 2300 BC. Its believed that these tiles were used to play the original game of chance. Harvard and Yale have gone further to prove that the Chinese used to be involved in lottery games because there is some tile like pieces in the form of keno slips. Studies show that their keno slips were also used for gambling during the construction of the Great Wall of China.

Another form of evidence that proves gambling started way back can be found in the writings of Sophocles. In his writings, the great Greek poet wrote about dice which were created by a mythological hero during the War of Troy. However, this was in 500 BC although there is evidence that dice was used in Ancient Egypt in 3000 BC.

A fun fact which you should know is that in ancient Roman gambling was illegal. If anyone was found gaming, they were penalised. Therefore the Romans invented chips which they could gamble with instead of real money. Thus, the chips that we know of today have come a long way.

Here is a look at some casino games and their history:

Cards were first played in China during the 9th century.

Baccarat was first played in France and Italy during the early 1400s

Blackjack first made its breakthrough in Nevada, the USA in the early 1930s

History of Casinos:

When you think about casinos, I’m sure that the first thing that comes into mind is Las Vegas strips. Before the coming of the modern age casinos which you are aware of today gambling houses were the norm during the old days. They first appeared in Italy in the early 1600s. For instance, the Ridotto was the first gambling house to be established in Italy.

Later in the 1800s slot machines became a thing, and they were trendy. The first slot machine had three spinning reels and five symbols. Gamblers loved the slot machines which were everywhere; this led to the establishment of brick-and-mortar casinos all over. The more the casinos also meant that there would be more games both traditional games and card games.

For more information on this topic, check out History of Gambling.