History of Gambling in Europe

According to the historical records and archaeological evidence, gambling culture in civilized nations have already existed for many centuries, archaeologists confirmed that the collected substantial data on gambling in the twentieth century which could prove that gambling in ancient society was widely circulated. Many ancient gambling tools were found in China, India, Rome and Egypt, for example : The archaeological finds in China around 2300 BC, there were ancient cultural relics on gambling; Archaeologists salvaged a set of dice made of ivory from the sea bottom, the estimated production date was earlier than 1500 BC in the ancient capital of Egypt.

Early in the 14th century, The King Henry VIII ruled that gambling was against the law, which was the first time to identify gambling was not legal acts of judgment. This decision was triggered by the emperor Henry VIII. He found that some of his sergeants wasted a lot of time in gambling which caused neglect of military drills and marksmanship.

The concept about blackjack and poker was germinated in China around 900 BC. Gambling tool was made of paper cards, playing method was alternate operations. Subsequently, these card games spread to Europe through the ancient Middle East Mamluk empire. Since most of Mamluk people believed in Islam, they could not use the people' faces to decorate cards, their specific exquisite decorative pattern cards were shown on the Muslims carpet at that time.

When these cards spread to Italy and Spain, the card producer printed images on cards which referred to the power of the male members of the Royal Court level, identity location and etc. Until 1500 BC, the Frenchman got these cards, they put female image as a representative of "Queen" on a card to replace male image, known as the French-style suit cards. That is the 52 cards with this solitaire style are commonly used nowadays.

About roulette gambling history, it also an interesting story. A roulette looked like a tiny wheel. The Frenchman, Mr. Frank Gauss and Louis modified it to become roulette gambling today. They invented roulette gambling with a single “zero” printed on roulette wheel. Meanwhile, such a stuff was brought to the America.

American people converted the original roulette with one single ‘zero’ into double ‘zero’. So there were two versions, printed with double “zero” roulette was called American Roulette. Another one was printed with individual “zero”, known as European Roulette. Nevertheless, it was rather vague concerning the origin of roulette. According to other sources, some people said it was invented by the mathematician in 17th century, it was also supported that the Roulette was invented by the Chinese, then spread to Europe by the Spanish monks.

In the late 18th century, Monaco's Prince Charles utilized roulette to offset the financial crisis of his Kingdom. Roulette gambling was popular in a sharp rise.

For craps gambling, it has exited more than 2000 years in the World. The carps gambling was the most significant and easy understanding tools in all various gambling and it was recognized as the most popular game. The craps gambling was called a game about adventure. During the 18th and 19th centuries in UK, the private casino was only for royal, social elite and nobility personnel reception. When this game had been spread into French, it was called “double craps” very soon. It meant using a pair of dice to throw. When this gambling was spread to America, it also became the most popular game after simplification.

In the very beginning, craps gambling was only occurred in steam ships on the inland waterways in the United States, shortly thereafter, it occurred on the streets of major cities in the United States.

After the independence of United State in 1776, the newly formed government made use gambling as raise huge amounts of government funds. However, this act resulted in social problems and chaos in the West which was completely out of control. During 1850-1910, Nevada declared gambling to be illegal. Until 1931, gambling was again approved as legitimate, the world's largest non-general Casino in Las Vegas was unveiled.