Category: Gambling and Casinos

Lotteries have been with us for a long time. They go so far back that they’re mentioned in the Bible, and Caesar himself is known to have encouraged lottery games in Rome to help pay for repair work that needed to be done in the city. Legend has it that even the Great Wall of China was paid for by the proceeds of lottery games.

In medieval times, Europe was a hotbed of lottery activity. In 1420, residents of the French town of L’Ecluse decided to follow Caesar’s lead by using a public lottery to help raise money; this time to increase the town’s defenses. Charitable causes prompted officials in the Belgium city of Bruges to hold a lottery in 1466 to raise money for the poor and needy.

In the early 16th century, the Italians caught lottery fever when they introduced the idea of a ‘number’ lottery in Florence. Interestingly, the word ‘lottery’ is thought to originate from the Italian ‘lotto’, which simply means “fate”.

Royalty caught on to lottery’s moneymaking potential in 1520, when King Francis I of France held the first ever state lottery. The proceeds went to the Royal Court. Forty years later, in the 1560s, lottery fever crossed the English Channel when Queen Elizabeth I decided to hold her own state lottery to raise money to improve England’s ailing harbors. Her Majesty’s prizes included tapestry and money.

The lottery gained in popularity in England over the next two centuries. The British Museum in London, today one of the finest in the world, was actually started on the proceeds of a lottery in 1753.

Lotteries were particularly popular in the New World in the 18th century. Benjamin Franklin used one to pay for the cannons that helped win the American War of Independence, and they were also used to pay money to the army. The Mountain Road, one of the key routes into the west from Virginia, was paid for with a lottery organized by George Washington.

Individuals were fond of them too; Thomas Jefferson (the third U.S. President) sold most of his property through a lottery scheme. Many of America’s historic colleges and universities were initially set up with the proceeds of lotteries. Most notably, these include many of the universities in the prestigious Ivy League.

Within the last couple of centuries, lotteries have been legalized and implemented in pretty much every country in the world. As the numbers of people playing become bigger, so do the prizes; a jackpot in the USA’s Big Game lottery in 2000 reached $363 million.

Keno was introduced in 200 BC by the Chinese military leader, Cheung Leung who used this game as a finance resource for his failing army. He used this game as a finance resource to help his failing army. The city of Cheung was waging a war, and after awhile of war time appeared to be facing national famine with the drastic decrease in supplies. Cheung Leung needed to come up with a fast fix for the economic disaster and to produce revenue for his army. He thusly created the game we now know as keno and it was a great success.

Keno used to be known as the White Pigeon Game, since the winning numbers were delivered by pigeons from larger cities to the smaller villages. The lottery ‘Keno’ was brought to the United States in the 1800s by Chinese immigrants who came to the US to work. In those times, Keno was played with 120 numbers.

Keno is generally played with 80 numbers in most of American based casinos as well as online casinos. Keno is largely enjoyed today because of the relaxed nature of playing the game and the simple fact that there are no skills needed to play Keno. Despite the fact that the odds of winning are terrible, there is always the chance that you will win quite big with very little gambling investment.

Today, Keno is played with 80 numbers and 20 numbers are drawn each game. Players of Keno can choose from 2 to 10 numbers and bet on them, as much or as little as they want to. The payout of Keno is according to the bets made and the roll out of matching numbers.

The ‘thousand character classic’ is the heritage produced by keno history-a Chinese poem of 1000 numbers, which is known as a set of independent characters placed in a rhymed form. It was originally a new way for children to learn, however the poem is so well know that the characters are often used as a romantic numbering system. On the original keno boards, instead of using just numbers, they used these characters.

Keno grew in popularity in the United States near the end of the 19th century when the Chinese characters were replaced with more familiar, American numbers. Lotteries were not covered under the legalization of gambling in the state of Nevada in 1931. The casinos changed the name of the ‘Chinese lottery’ to ‘horse race keno’ utilizing the idea that the numbers are horses and you want your horses to come in. When a law passed that taxed off track betting, Nevada swiftly changed the name to ‘keno’.

The origins of Poker and Jacks or Better are quite controversial. There isn’t any specific ancestor of the game to draw a date from. However, Poker is a very old game indeed. The earliest reference seems to be from JH Green who, in 1834, referred to the ‘cheating game’ being played on the riverboats in Mississippi of the time. Jacks or Better Poker seemed to be a more legitimate game than Three Card Monte, which was quite popular at the time. Jacks or Better took over with popularity because it was labeled a fair game.

The origin of the name ‘Poker’ likely comes from the French ‘poque’ and old French game; while other people claim that the word ‘Poker’ must have come from Germany’s pochspiel. There are still few who also believe the word is derived from the Hindu pukka.

Jacks or Better is one of the more popular original types of Poker that were played, although no information is really available as to its exact origins. Jacks or Better is one of the common rules amongst most types of Poker games that are played with some exceptions in the new variations of Poker that are played at casinos.

Jacks or Better Poker is available as a game for video Poker. The concept behind the game is that a pair of Jacks or Better wins: the better hand consisting two pairs, flush, straight, etc. up to a royal flush. Poker was thought of as a game of the men of the underworld in times past however nowadays is played legally in many variations in casinos around the world. It is possible that Poker is derived from many of earlier games that lent influence to the game of Poker we know today. It was reported by English actor, Joseph Crowell, that Poker was played in New Orleans in 1829 with a deck consisting of 20 cards, and with four players betting on which player’s hand was the most valuable.

After the spread of gambling from the Mississippi riverboats, the full, 52 card deck was introduced and used to play Poker and the flush hand (five cards of the same suit) was introduced. Poker has been around for nearly 200 years, and there have been many variations that have come about from the game. Jacks or Better Poker is one simple variation of the game that is commonly played, especially in video Poker.

Poker has a long and indistinct history. Some hold that it originated in Persia as it closely resembles a game called As Nas and may have been brought to the United States via Persian sailors in New Orleans. This game was played with 25 cards with 5 different suits. This game was played similarly to modern Five Card Stud with many of the hand combinations such as three of a kind. It seems likely that the name “Poker” descended from the French poque, which originally came from the German pochen, ‘to knock’.

The game was reportedly played in New Orleans around the late 1820’s, with a deck of 20 cards and players betting on the value of their hands. The earliest known form of Poker was played with a 20-card pack (A-K-Q-J-10) evenly dealt amongst four players. There was no draw, and bets are made on a narrow range of combinations: one pair, two pair, triplets, and ‘full’ – so called because it is the only combination in which all five cards are active – and four of a kind. Unlike classic Poker, in which the top hand (royal flush) can be tied in another suit, the original top hand consisting of four Aces, or four Kings and an Ace, was absolutely unbeatable. The spread of the game after this seems to have been facilitated by the practice of gambling on Mississippi riverboats.

Soon after this the deck was expanded to the present day 52 cards and the flush was introduced. The additional cards were introduced mostly to allow more players. The game was expanded and developed further during the Civil War, with many of the variants of the game being introduced then, including Five Card Stud. Poker was initially played with only one round of betting with all five cards dealt face down and no draw cards, very similar to today’s Five Card Stud game.

Professional gamblers later added variations and rule changes in order to increase the profitability of the game. Wild cards and bluffing became common occurrences and the draw was added around 1850, allowing yet another round of betting. Many of the features of modern Poker, such as the draw and some versions of different hands, as well as the straight and the flush originated in the earlier forms of the British game Brag or Bragg. Brag’s modern form differs greatly from modern day poker, however.