Bingo is becoming something of a national phenomenon. With increasing numbers of online bingo sites, as well as the growth of companies such as Mecca Bingo, it seems that bingo is here to stay.

Historically speaking bingo is essentially an offshoot of other games of chance. Apparently it can be traced back to an Italian game called Lo Giuoco Code Loto dating back as far as the 1530s. It was, however a combination of the French and the Germans who turned it into the game that we know and love today. 18th century France was the first to introduce the reading out of random numbers and players having cards to keep track. Germany, meanwhile, adopted the game as part of their educational system.

Popular legend says that a carnival visitor in the United States saw a game called Beano being played in Atlanta in 1929 and was struck by the degree to which the players enjoyed the game, being so involved, as they were, that they didn’t leave until they were ordered to at three o’clock in the morning. When the carny customer, Edwin Lowe, returned to New York he showed the game to his friends. The origin of the name of ‘Bingo’ seems to have come from one of Lowe’s friends getting the name of the game wrong upon winning. The name stuck.

After the success of the game in New York, Lowe was met with great success as he began to spread the game further, and by the 1940s the style that he had developed had spread all across the country. Time passed and the game became popular as a method of small-stakes gambling that could be used for charity auctions and other similar events.

In the United Kingdom the game experienced similar success, albeit with a few slight changes in format. A gambling card game also developed with the same name, because of an already existing style of game that had similarities to the Bingo developed by Edwin Lowe in the United States. As the game grew in success in the UK it spread to areas such as Australia and New Zealand where British influence was particularly keenly felt.

Advancements in technology have led to the further development of the game. Computerised machines have replaced the traditional methods of marked balls in spinning wheels, supposedly reducing the chances of foul play. Internet Bingo has become very successful, both for fun and for betting. The format of the game lends itself particularly successfully to the Internet, as even the version played up and down the country in bingo halls involves a certain amount of remote play.

Given the relatively short time in which Bingo has grown from a game of marginal popularity to a worldwide phenomenon, it seems unlikely that the game will abate any time soon. With companies such as Mecca offering UK online bingo as well as the traditional bingo halls, and the rise of the socio-cultural phenomenon of “young fogeys”, this unlikely modern pursuit looks set to continue being discovered by new generations. 

Blackjack is one of the most popular and easily recognized card games in the world today. A favourite at casinos across the globe, online blackjack is now offered by a whole range of sites such as Riverbelle or classiccasinos.com.

The ancient Chinese played card-like games using paper money. Similar card games spread throughout the East and on to Europe in the first millennium. During the fifteenth century the four suits of spades, diamonds, clubs and hearts originated in France. Spanish gamers favoured one-and-thirty a game in which players tried to score 31 using a combination of their dealt cards and community cards. Though both these games had very different rules to the blackjack of today they give us the first hints of what was to come.

By the 1800s Europe was gripped by casino fever with royalty flocking to the tables. French casinos popularized Quinze in which the aim of the game was to score 15. Another popular game was Trente-et-Quarante, which is still played today and set the card goal at 31.

However it is in the game Vingt-Un (21) that we find the clearest precursor to Blackjack. Cards were dealt in rounds with accompanying betting as opposed to the –up-front wager in modern blackjack. The game crossed the Atlantic in the late 1800s to the United States but at first met with little success. Casinos tried offering various bonus payouts to encourage interest. One such bonus was a 10-to-1 payout if the player's hand consisted of the ace of spades and a black Jack (either the Jack of clubs or the Jack of spades). This hand was called a "blackjack" and the name stuck even though the bonus payout was soon abolished.

The ploy worked and by the 1930s blackjack tables were drawing the crowds. Eventually casino owners dropped the blackjack bonus but the name stuck and the game has remained a firm favourite ever since.

During the 1960s, blackjack was given a further boost when the first probability theories were developed about the game. These theories highlighted the best strategies to play depending on the player's hand and the displayed dealer's card. In addition ‘card counting' was explored and for the past forty years various players have demonstrated how the correct strategy together with practiced skill can tip the odds towards the player.

Blackjack books such as Beat the Dealer by Edward Thorp and Stanford Wong’s Professional Blackjack proved hugely successful adding to the popularity and profile of the game. The awareness that blackjack is not simply down to luck but that skill and experience can really make a difference has inspired gamblers ever since.

The profile of blackjack has recently been raised even higher with the release in the late 90’s of the best selling book Bringing Down the House. The book is based on the exploits of a group of students from the MIT who set up a gambling team and won millions of dollars playing blackjack in the mega-resorts like Las Vegas.

Bringing Down the House has now been turned by Sony Pictures into the first large-budge movie about Blackjack. Titled 21 the fact-based story stars Kevin Spacey and centres on the six students and their story of gambling success. Read an interview with Mike Aponte one of the MIT team here - http://www.blackjackinfo.com/MIT-Mike-Aponte.php

As online casinos developed blackjack was quickly added to the games available. Today online blackjack is one of the biggest and most widely played gambling game on the Internet.