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Throughout history, societies have treated gambling with ambivalence—a kind of love-hate relationship. Kings, queens, emperors and presidents have all, at one time or other, tried to prohibit gambling, just as the same leaders have all intermittently used it as a revenue source, holding lotteries and taxing winnings. Even major religions don’t know quite what to make of the human desire to wager.

In the 14th century, Francesco Petrarca, the Italian father of Humanism, argued that gambling is a wholly unprofitable endeavour. He reasoned that winning meant someone else must lose, and that today’s winner was certain to be a loser tomorrow. He never, however, called for gambling to be banned.

Read More >> Gambling and Morality

Horse racing is no more an English invention than playing cards are Italian. But there can be little doubt that the sport was elevated to a lofty level in Britain.

On April 6, 1680, the household of King Charles II traveled by carriage and saddle horse to Newmarket Downs, about 60 miles northeast of London. Their purpose, according to historian J.P. Hore writing in 1886, was to attend a singular event, a race “between Major Astan’s Horse and another Gentleman’s (on a) six-mile course, for £500 each.” Hore went on to say that “a great number of Gentlemen….have laid very considerable sums of money on both sides; but ‘tis supposed the odds will lie on the Major’s side.” Thus did the “Sport of Kings” (and handicapping) begin—the precursor to today’s thoroughbred racing.

Read More >> The Sport Of Kings

The British contribution to gambling history is considerably less than that of the French or Italians, or even the Americans, at least in terms of the number of inventions played today. The very term “gambling” (from the French gamen, “to play”) did not enter the English vocabulary until the mid-1600s. Gambling houses would close almost as quickly as they opened. One problem was that cheating was rampant in Britain in the 18th century. But that does not mean Britain has been without its important influences.

Read More >> Meanwhile, Back in England

Gambling was legal in the western U.S. throughout the 19th century. In addition to roulette, the most popular table game on the frontier in the 1830s was Faro, the same game that fascinated Venetians at the Ridotto. In fact, Faro was so widespread that newspapers took to calling it “The Game that Won the West.”

Another steadfast gambling hall activity evolved from the astragali of old. During the Crusades, William of Tyre and other soldiers allegedly created a dice game to pass the time, which they called “Hazard,” perhaps after the castle town of Hazarth, or maybe a derivation of the Arabic words for “the dice”—al zar. Hazard became wildly popular in Britain, before crossing to France.

Read More >> All In The Cards

The Ridotto closed in 1774, and less than two dozen years later, the entire city of Venice would fall to Napoleon. By the turn of the 19th century, Italy was no longer the center of gambling sophistication. That honor would eventually fall to France, although the French did not pick up that mantle easily.

Between 1663 and 1777, 32 separate decrees were issued, making gambling illegal in France, but the practice could not be stamped out. In 1785, Louis Philippe Joseph I turned the four-story Palais Royale into a commercial establishment, with apartments on the upper floors and shops on the ground level. In the basement, he rented out space to restaurants and social clubs, many of which focused their socialising on games of chance. One estimate put the number of rooms devoted to gambling at more than 100.

The Directorate that governed France in the wake of the Revolution neither legalised nor banned gambling. Instead, a blind eye was turned to the five major game rooms of the Palais Royale, leaving Parisians an unbothered place to play. The Directorate did make one major change, however, symbolic of their triumph over the monarchy: they ordered that the “one” or “ace” in a deck of playing cards be ranked higher than the King, creating the so-called “French deck” now used in casinos the world over.

Read More >> The French Connection