Category: Gambling and Casinos

The history of Craps dates back to a dice game called Hazard, which dates back to Bernard de Mandeville in New Orleans in 1813. Hazard is thought to be a descendant of Azzahr, meaning ‘the die’-a game played by Arabs.

The game evolved as it traveled from the Arab countries to France and then England. By the early 1700s, formal rules for Hazard had been established. France adopted the English version of Hazard and is thought to have been brought to America by early French settlers. In the mid-1700s, when the English defeated the French in Canada, the French settlers relocated to Louisiana. Dice were played on river boats, clubs and wharfs and a simplified ‘American’ version of Craps was developed. The game moved west along with the frontier and is a popular game today that is played all over the United States and around the world.

The name ‘Craps’ is believed to be a French pronunciation of the word crabs, which means a pair of ones. There are two basic forms of Craps that are played-street Craps and bank Craps. Street caps, aptly named because it is played on the streets is where a shooter establishes a point and then tries to make that point. The betting is made either for or against the shooter and someone must cover the bet in order for the game to continue.

In bank Craps, which is the common game, played in casinos, the casino banks the game. The players play against the house-the casino covers all of the bets of all of the players. Craps used to be a quite popular game but in the last 20 years had divided itself and other games, such as poker and black jack became more popular. However, Craps is seeing a come back in popularity once again in online casinos and in real casinos.

Craps is based on a party at the table. These are the players at the casino that you often hear shouting at each other, at the table and dice-it’s a team sport-you get to play along with other players. The appeal of Craps being a team effort is what appeals to many people, however for others; the essence of the game is to make money, and lots of it. At a Craps table, it is possible to make quite a lot of money playing. Craps can be a confusing game to play at first sight. Craps looks like a difficult game to grasp however once you understand the concepts of Craps and you get the hang of the game; it is quite easy to follow.

Chuck A Luck is a gambling game that employs three dice and a wire cage or cone-shaped chute. The dice used are standard six-sided cubes numbered from 1 to 6 at each side. The chute, which can be made of either leather or metal, is usually called a ‘horn’.

The use of metal chutes in the game of Chuck A Luck is associated with the so-called tinhorn gamblers, who were actually gamblers with little money, thus the choice of metal over the higher-priced leather. An early version of the game was played by the dice being thrown or “chucked” – hence the name. A heavy welded metal birdcage device eventually became the standard use where only the dealers are allowed to turn the cage.

The Chuck A Luck cage has been loosely interchanged by many with any birdcage tumbler. This is only true on the basis of the game’s definition as long as there are three dice in the cage. Cages are also used for other games such as High/Low (Under and Over) but with a different number of dice.

Origins of Gambling and Gaming in the US

Long before casinos came to be, card, dice and gaming table possession were outlawed in some places. As time passed, laws were relaxed to allow casual gaming or games for purely recreational purposes and not for trade. However, general hostility toward professional gamblers took a long time to go away and sometimes resulted in lynching.

There were places, however, that accepted gambling as a harmless form of recreational activity. Legal gambling took the form of card, dice and animal racing games that were perceived to be proper gentlemen’s diversion. The wide appeal of gambling is attributed to its association with the frontier spirit, which relies on high expectations, risk-taking and opportunism.

Lotteries were widespread and used mainly to raise revenues. Some of the earliest and most prestigious universities such as Harvard and Yale were established using proceeds coming from lotteries. Dice and card games in taverns and roadhouses slowly initiated casino gaming. Casinos were established as the population increased.

During the highest point of California gambling, Faro was the most popular game played in saloons; followed by several dice games such as high/low, chuck a luck and grand hazard. The spread of settlers beyond California expedited the spread of gambling as well. Since then, laws have been enacted across the country in a bid to bestow respectability and recognition of legal gambling.

Origins of Chuck A Luck

Chuck A Luck is an old game that originated in English pubs. It was then known as “Sweat Cloth” and was introduced in the US sometime around 1800 as “Sweat”. It also became known by several other names such as “Chucker Luck”, “Chuck-Luck” and “Chuck” during the mid-to-late 1800’s. It was only after 1900 that it was called “Birdcage” and eventually “Chuck A Luck”.

“Sweat” was played using a cup and three dice, which were thrown. Due to allegations of cheating by operators in the use of weighted or trick-shaped dice and the practice of trick dice throwing, the cup was replaced by a birdcage-like device which was flipped several times by the dealer and displayed the results when the cage stopped and the dice dropped.

Chuck A Luck took a more advanced form through “Grand Hazard”, another type of dice game. The main difference lies in the layout. At present, the game can be found only in a handful of casinos worldwide, overshadowed by more recent versions of the simple dice game. Casino dice games have indeed come a long way, considering that tossing up dice holds traces of the ancient cult, being associated with the rituals of fortune telling.

Caribbean Stud Poker is a variant of poker, a card game with a long and mysterious history. The word ‘poker’ has a tangled history all of its own; it comes from the French word ‘poque’, which itself is a variant on the German word ‘pochen’, which simply means “to knock”.

Nobody really knows how or where poker began; some say that its origins lie in a 16th century Persian card game, whilst others believe that it originated in Europe at the turn of the 19th century. One thing we can be sure of is that poker was brought to North America by French explorers, and that it was originally played in Louisiana. Many accounts name New Orleans of 1830 as the place and time where modern-day poker was first played. After being initially established, the game quickly spread from Louisiana and soon became a favorite in the West.

While we don’t know who specifically invented Caribbean Stud Poker, the tropical version of the game, we do know that it originated on the island of Aruba. This popular tourist destination is just off the coast of Venezuela, and boasts a population of only 100,000. Caribbean Stud Poker is based on the rules of five-card stud poker, with the major difference being that players bet against the house, rather than other players.

Caribbean Stud Poker was initially played in the Holiday Inn Hotel & Casino in 1988, where the turquoise ocean and beaches of white sand provided a fitting motive for its exotic name. Now known as the Excelsior Casino, this location is still widely popular with tourists and forms the basis of a thriving community. It has recently been the focus of attention once more, with the World Poker Tour being held there in September 2005.

In the late 1980s, Caribbean Stud Poker spread throughout the islands of the Caribbean, and it was also offered in casinos on cruise ships in the area. Over the next few years it received an ever-growing reputation until, inevitably, it arrived in Las Vegas in 1992.

The gambling gurus in Nevada realized that the game wasn’t quite rewarding enough to the player, so they added a progressive jackpot as a sweetener. Their plan worked, and the popularity of the game skyrocketed throughout North America and Europe. Nowadays, it’s hard to find a casino in the world that doesn’t offer Caribbean Stud Poker, and with the arrival of Internet gambling, everybody has a chance to play.

In Italy during the 1530s a lottery was invented that is still played in Italy every Saturday. This is where the game of Bingo originated. The game travelled to France in the 1770s and was initially played amongst wealthy Frenchmen. The game then travelled deeper into Europe reaching Germany, where they chose to use it as a tool to help their children learn history, spelling and math.

Finally, the game reached Atlanta, Georgia in 1929 where it became known as ‘beano’. It was played at fairs and carnivals around the country. Each player had some dried beans and a card containing numbered squares – this was divided into three rows and nine columns. There was a caller who drew random discs numbered from 1 to 90 from a cigar box or a bag. The designated number drawn out was then shouted to waiting players. The players used their beans to cover up the matching number on the card. The winner would be the first person to cover up an entire row of numbers. When this happened the player yelled ‘beano’ to alert everyone that they had won.

A New York toy salesman, Edwin S. Lowe, was visiting a country fair one day when he witnessed a woman shout ‘Bingo!’ In her eagerness to tell everyone that she had covered all her numbers, she became tongue-tied and shouted ‘Bingo’ instead of ‘beano’. This error ultimately inspired Lowe and he rushed back to New York to develop and market a new game – Bingo!

Lowe’s first commercial version of the game retailed at $1 for a 12 card set and $2 for 24 cards. A priest from Pennsylvania realized that he could raise some much needed funds for his church by running Bingo games, but he soon discovered a problem. There were often too many winners! When he brought this to Lowe’s attention Lowe hired a math professor, Carl Leffer, to help him increase the amount of Bingo combinations. By 1930 they had invented over 6,000 Bingo cards – reputedly at the cost of Leffer’s sanity.

Word soon spread that Bingo was an easy and enjoyable way to raise money. By 1934 it was estimated that over 10,000 games a week were being played. Having been unable to patent his invention, Lowe generously allowed his competitors to pay him a dollar a year and for that he happily let them call their games ‘Bingo’ too.