Since these two Jacks are “black” they named the hand “blackjack” and the name stuck.
One bonus was a 10-to-1 payout if a player’s hand consisted of the ace of spades and either the Jack of spades or clubs. As a result, casinos began offering different types of bonuses to attract players. When gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1934, and Blackjack was offered as a game that was most commonly played with one or two decks of cards.ĭid You Know? Blackjack was not very popular when it was first introduced in United States casinos. The roots of blackjack can be traced back to several European card games including the French ‘Vingt-Un’ (21), ‘Trente et Quarente’, and ‘Chemin de Fer’ (Railroad), as well as the Spanish ‘One and Thirty’, Italian ‘Baccara’ and ‘Seven and a half’ which all have similarities to modern Blackjack. The card game of Blackjack was introduced to the United States sometime in the 19th century, but the origin of the game is still disputed among historians.
