Gambling was very popular in Ancient Greece even though it
was illegal and has been a part of the human experience ever
since. The history of the BlackJack card game itself is still
disputed but was probably spawned from other French games
such as "chemin de fer" and "French Ferme".
BlackJack originated in French casinos around 1700 where it
was called "vingt-et-un" ("twenty-and-one")
and has been played in the U.S. since the 1800's. BlackJack
is named as such because if a player got a Jack of Spades
and an Ace of Spades as the first two cards (Spade being the
color black of course), the player was additionally remunerated.
