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The Venetian authourities stepped in, initially to bring order to the lottery craze, and then to conduct their own drawings. They raffled off everything from cash and real estate to official jobs and commissions, while stifling the competition. Bringing lotteries under government control was done for the good of the people, of course. A percentage of the income derived from them went to feeding the poor and ransoming hostages held in foreign lands.

Despite such intervention, Venice remained enamoured of gambling. When attempts were made to ban them, the dice and card games that occurred spontaneously on street corners simply fled indoors to private chambers known as “ridotto.” Particularly among the aristocracy, the ridotto flourished. The favourite pastime in the 16th and 17th century was called “Basset,” a card game played against a banker that allowed winnings to ride and multiply—a wager known as paroli, or “parlay.”

In 1638, realizing that a gambling prohibition was futile, the Great Council of Venice had an epiphany. During the city’s spring Carnival, they converted a four-story building in the San Moisé Palace to use for legal gaming. They named it “The Ridotto.” Thus was Europe’s first, state-sanctioned casino born.

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Oddsmaking is an important aspect of gambling. Even the earliest dice players could figure out that the probability of a six being thrown on cube-shaped die was 1-in-6, or perhaps slightly higher or lower if the die were lopsided. But how did 14th century bet-takers calculate 10-to-1 odds on the acquittal of King Henry VIII’s wife, Anne Boleyn, and her brother when they were put on trial for treason and incest? Until the 16th century, predicting the likelihood of events was much more of an art than a science. Mathematics had yet to catch up.

In the mid-1500s, an eccentric Italian gambler named Girolamo Cardano wrote several treatises on probability as it applies to games of chance, covering dice, cards, backgammon and even astragali. Between 1613 and 1623, astronomer Galileo Galilei was commissioned by his Tuscan patron to write a paper on the odds related to throwing three dice. Later in the 17th century, mathematical giants no less than Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat (the inventor of calculus) would turn their genius to solving problems concerning dice and coin flips.

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Greece, the home of the Olympic Games, deserves considerable credit for linking gambling with sports. Thousands of years ago, at annual contests held in Olympus, Corinth, Delphi and Nemea, athletes would compete in footraces, hurling the discus, long jumping, and throwing the javelin, often dressed in full armour. They also went against each other in wrestling, boxing and a form of free-style fighting. Winners might get prize money, statues erected in their honor and odes written about them. But the biggest winnings were to be found among the spectators, who vigourously wagered on the outcomes, gaining and losing fortunes on a single turn of events.

If the Greeks were big sports bettors, the Romans who conquered them were even more so. In the 1st century, Pliny the Elder wrote, “We are so much at the mercy of chance that Chance is our god.” To Romans, gambling was a metaphor for Life. They spread their proclivity for it far and wide, so that long after the Roman Empire collapsed, wagering on games of chance and sports were manifest everywhere they had been.

By the Middle Ages, some nations, such as England under Richard II, were trying to outlaw gambling, but with little success. When the King directed his subjects to turn their attention to archery, for example, wagering on archery matches became common. In Italy, there was betting on a form of lawn bowling called bocce. In Germany, folks bet on skittles (ninepin bowling) and quoits (a game like horseshoes).

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India’s role in the history of gambling is also manifold. Throughout the Vedic Period (1700~500 B.C.), dice games were played there using five-sided nuts from the vibhitaka tree. These were often replicated in wood, ivory, terracotta, silver and gold. Today, gambling with dice is still considered a ritual of mystical importance during the celebration of Dewali, or “the festival of lights”—said to be a good time for gambling. In fact, by tradition, those who fail to gamble on this special day are in danger of being reincarnated as donkeys!

Indeed, animals are especially significant with regard to gambling in India. Elephants, horses, serpents and cattle appeared on the earliest Indian playing cards, which were considered a vehicle for perpetuating Hindu heritage, religion and folklore. And the people of India were among the first to embrace contests involving animals, upon which bets could be placed.

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Like other great cultures, the Chinese had oracles they consulted for divine assistance. For guidance with major decisions, they shuffled pieces of engraved turtle shell and animal bones upon which characters had been written. Black and white stones cast on a board to create patterns on a grid of lines were also used to predict the outcome of events.

By 2300 B.C., the Chinese had developed games of chance based on these tools, some using marked tiles and others based on the black and white stone patterns. One game called Wei-qi has been played in virtually the same form as it was originally conceived for nearly 4,000 years. Another evolved into the Japanese board game “I-Go.” Others would eventually lead to “Mahjong,” “Fan-Tan” and “Pai Gow.” And still another became the game known today as “Dominoes.”

But the biggest contribution of China to gambling was the invention of modern papermaking during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25~220 C.E.). Sturdy, lightweight paper could be used to replace heavy tiles and stones. By 1000 C.E., dominoes were being made out of stiff paper, which led to new methods of shuffling, new designs and, in turn, new games, many of which were influenced by “fighting tablet” games created in Korea in the 6^th century. The use of “dotted playing cards” became widespread between 1120 and 1131. Decks contained as few as 25~30 cards.

Read More >> All In The Cards