Time-Traveling Through the History of Gambling Games All Over the World

Gambling games have been found in the history of mankind from much earlier times. Although there are many disputes regarding the history of the origin of gambling it can be confidently said that the history of gambling has been glorious. From the ancient times where the predominance of gambling on animal fights, dice games, board games was seen to the present times where the predominance of online gambling using online sportsbook is seen, the long journey of gambling games has undoubtedly been a glorious one. Through this article, we will go through some of the important milestones in the history of gambling.

First Concrete Evidence About Gambling 

The most concrete evidence of an ancient form of gambling has been excavated from Ancient China which is a set of tiles that is assumed to be used as playing gambling games of chance similar to present-day slot games. This information is derived from the ancient Chinese book, “Book of Songs”.

In this book, the tiles were called “drawing on wood” and also been mentioned that they were used for playing lottery-type games. More evidence has also been found which were the keno slips, that historians assumed that were used in conducting the lottery games. The most moving thing was that evidence has been found that the revenues obtained from these lottery games were used to run state funds of China and most probably a part of the funding for the construction of the great wall of China was done from this revenue too.

Dicing Games on the Streets of Ancient Rome

The accounts of famous Greek poet Sophocles claimed that dice for gambling games were invented by a famous mythical hero when he seized the city of Troy. This text dates back to around 500 BC. This was the first-ever mention of gambling games the record of which has been found in Greece. From the ancient written records, it can be known that gambling was extremely popular in Rome. But playing gambling games was illegal on the streets of Rome.

The punishment for being caught in gambling on the streets was that the gambler would have to pay four times the amount he has placed for a bet. This led to the first discovery of gambling chips. These gambling chips were used to play gambling games and if someone got caught while gambling they simply said that they were gambling with the chips and not using any real money for gambling thus saving oneself from getting punished.

Card Games of China

All the historians put their consensus on the fact that the first playing cards were discovered in China during the 19th century. The cards used at that time most probably were like paper dominos of the present time, but the rules and regulations of the games are still unknown to historians. But it can be well understood that the card games of that time were much different from the card games of what we see now.

Baccarat card Game of Italy and France 

Baccarat is one of the games which is played even in the present times in offline casinos or online casinos. It is a two-player spectator card game the origin of which can be traced back to the 1400s. This game was first introduced in Italy and later on became popular in France too. Although baccarat has undergone many changes over the years the basic rules and regulations of the game remain unchanged in the present day.

The era of Online Gambling Games 

The present era witnessed a drastic change in the world of gambling games owing to the high technological advancement all over the world. This new change was the increase in the predominance of online gambling games through online gambling websites. These websites have a wide range of options of gambling games at the tip of the finger such as online sportsbook websites providing sports betting options, slot games, black Jack, etc. Thus the options are countless.

Thus we have gone through many milestones in the world of gambling games and casinos through this article and took an attempt to understand the evolution of ancient gambling games to modern ones.