Pick casino game to learn more
Since the beginning of time, humans have always had an urge to compete. Whether it is in sports or gambling, we all want to take part – and of course, win. Some more so than others and its not all of us that can participate in the Olympic Games or become millionaires from gambling. Most of us settle for a scratchcard or for a gambling round at our online casino.
To practice in a group is not competing but it is still a way to push each other and to see where you stand compared to others. You don’t want to do fewer push-ups than the person next to you when you train at the gym.
It is the same feeling when we play at the casino. Sometimes we play against ourselves, sometimes against others, but we all strive towards the satisfying sensation of winning – the moment we shout out Yes! I won!
Inventive gamblers
It is no secret that the people of ancient Greece and Rome loved all kinds of games 2500 years ago but there are fewer who knows that there is evidence of gambling in ancient Egypt. This evidence can be seen in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, which holds the oldest dices ever found.
The thought is mind-boggling. For more than 3000 years ago, an Egyptian put these dices together with other belongings in a tomb so that the person in the tomb, perhaps a dear relative, could bring them on his journey after death – only to be dug up by archaeologists in our time-period. There they lay in darkness for thousands of years waiting to be used.
The ancient Romans loved gambling, both high and low and were betting on anything they could think of. Not so surprising considering their love of all kinds of entertainment, something the rulers of Rome were generous of providing. Just as a citizen was given a certain portion of food they were also regularly given access to the Colosseum, the towns great arena where violent and bloody competitions took place and where slaves where fighting an uneven battle against different kinds of wild animals, such as lions or tigers. You can be sure that betting took place on the stance. How long will the slave last? How should he die? Did the slave manage to hit back?
The problem was that all gambling for money was prohibited inside the ancient walls of Rome. Gambling, therefore, had to take place in hiding, in narrow alleys or behind closed doors. The ones who got caught faced a huge fine. This did however not discourage the Romans. In order to not be fined and to be able to continue gambling, they just invented the chip. The chip was a way to show that the gambling was not for money but “just for fun”. The chips had, of course, different value, something the guards did not need to know.
What are casino games?
The terms of the gambling world are just a bunch of confusing words and expressions for many people. Which games are for example casino games? To put it simply, casino games are games that have by tradition been played at casinos, gambling houses, and today at online casinos, which as a business has grown massively in the latest couple of years.
These are places that offer their customers different kinds of games of chance. The result of casino games is always a matter of chance, even though professional gamblers and high rollers have developed advanced strategies for card games, such as poker – what cards the player is being delt is always a matter of chance.
The word casino derives from the Italian word casa (house), whose original meaning is a smaller house in the countryside to be used during summer. A kind of holiday house.
During the 19 century, the word was also used for houses where people went for entertainment and to socialise. Then it was usually a larger kind of building, a so-called palazzo. What is less known today is that in modern Italian, the word casino actually means brothel, also known as “casa chiusa”, which means “closed house”.
If you want to have a night out and find a gambling house in Italy, the kind of place we call casino, you have to look for a casinó – with an accent. In other words, you need to keep your eyes open – it may be easy to knock on the wrong door.
It was actually in Italy the first houses that resemble modern casinos where opened. One of the first was opened in Venice in order to offer organized gambling during the annual carnival when the town was in a lot of chaos. It was called Ridotto and it opened in 1638. Ridotto set the tone for casinos to come. During the 19th century casinos started to pop up across Europe, one after an other. Casinos have always been associated with large amounts of flair and glamour since it has usually been a form of entertainment for society’s upper class. Today’s sense of luxury and glamour is often due to casinos being the set of many movies, where fancy actors in evening dresses and tailcoats are sweeping by – often sipping from a glass of champagne.
When we think about casinos today we often think about Las Vegas, but that community was not a reality until after the great depression in America during the 1930th. During the 18th century, people played in more unorganized ways.
A few other famous casino destinations, besides the ones in Las Vegas, are Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco and Macau in China.
Which games count as casino games?
Casino games are for example a variety of classic board games such as Roulette, Blackjack, Oasis poker, Caribbean poker, Baccarat, Craps and Casino hold’em, just to mention a few. Classic Swedish card games do also belong in this category, even though they may not be found online.
Another category of games you will find in a casino is slots. They are often called “one-armed bandits” in Sweden, in their physical form, but it has become more and more common to call them slots when they are played on the internet. You will find a tremendous amount of different slots in online casinos. They have a vast diversity of themes and often offers a sparkling show in order to enhance the thrill of playing. In the slot-category, you will also find games like a jackpot- and 3D slots.
Part of the casino game family are also scratchcards, which may come as a bit of a surprise to many people, and Lotto, Keno online and online bingo just to mention a few.
The huge range of games can make it difficult for many people to figure out the best casino game but this is a luxury problem that is easy to live with.
The thing that is most amazing about the progress of casino games online, that has taken place in recent years, is the fact that you no longer have to get yourself to a different town or even a different part of the world to play, if you play in a live casino you can even get that Monte Carlo feeling in your own home.
Classic board games
We can begin by taking a closer look at one of the most popular board games – roulette. There are two different kinds of roulette. The American and the European. The difference is not that big, the European kind has one zero on its wheel, the American kind has two.
The game as we play it today has its origin in the gambling houses of Paris. It was mainly during the 19th-century roulette became more and more popular. The word roulette means “small wheel” in French and it is this very wheel with its marbles that spins and brings the excitement.
The wheel is divided into 37 numbered compartments – one of which is a zero, you as a player bets on the number or the colour at which you think the marble will land when the wheel comes to a stop. If you have placed a bet on that number, you will win.
The compartments are red or black in order for you to be able to bet on a colour-combination. The zero has a divergent colour which is green. The dealer spins the marble against the direction of the spinning wheel and should something happen to the marble or should something fall down on the wheel, the round will be played again.
Blackjack is a very well-liked card game and belongs in the classic board game category. Its name comes from the era after the great depression in the USA, in the 1930s. Even though it is more or less proven that the game is originally based on the French game as it was played in the 1700th century, vingt-et-un (21).
This game can very well be inspired by the Spanish game Ventiuna (21) as mentioned in a book from 1601 by the author of the book Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes.
No matter what, the name Blackjack emerged in Nevada USA and the name stuck. The casinos of Nevada tried to attract more guests and lured them in by offering odds of 10 -1 if the player won a blackjack consisting of clubs or spades together with the ace of spades. These particular odds didn’t last long but so did the name of the game.
The objective of the game, not surprisingly, is to get as close to the sum of 21 as possible. You should do this without being “bust” – in other words getting a sum of more than 21. If you reach 21 after your first two cards you got a blackjack and you are rewarded with one and a half time your bet. You play against the dealer and if both you and the dealer get 17, 18 or 19, the dealer wins. If you both get 20 or 21 it’s a draw. The player doesn’t get any winnings but he doesn’t lose his bet. In most casinos, in Sweden, the rule is that with 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21, the player gets to keep his bet, a so-called “push”.
You should keep in mind that casinos are allowed to make their own rules in blackjack, therefore there are more than a hundred versions of the game.
If you are a poker player then you are fortunate enough to choose from different types of games, tournaments, cash games and other challenges enough for the best of players. Texas hold’em is amongst the most played. When you are playing online you will have the opportunity to simultaneously play at a number of tables.
It is believed that poker has been played since the early 19th century. Some say the origin of the game can be traced back to 17th century Persia while others say the poker we play today is derived from the French game of Poque.
The real break through for the game came in Las Vegas in the 1970s when tournaments where organized. Especially when these tournaments were televised and viewers could see the players hands. It is not an exaggeration to say that poker online has become increasingly popular.
Casino games – great variety
The huge popularity of slots is probably due to the fact that the excitement is so constant and always there. They are a continued development of the so-called “one-armed bandits” where you pull a physical lever to make the wheels spin in order to achieve a winning combination. Slots are played online. It is a thrilling game with lots of lovely eye-candy consisting of colourful symbols and figures – and they are very easy to play.
The slots that first comes to mind, and which are extremely popular, are perhaps the slots equipped with progressive jackpots
This is how they work. Each time a player loses to the machine, part of the players’ loss is added to a pot. When a lucky player finally hits the jackpot, those are the money he wins. Another reason for these games big potential when played online is that an amazing number of players play it at the same time building up huge jackpots very quickly.
There are not many adults in Sweden who have never bought a scratchcard. It is a bit of childlike fun that moment (even if it only lasts a minute) when you may become a millionaire. You scratch and as soon as one square equals the next we begin planning for how you would spend all those millions. Decorate the home? Buy a boat? Travel around the world? Then it all may fall flat when the last square has been scratched. But it was fun while it lasted! They say it happens all of a sudden and if you don’t play you have no chance to win. Today most tickets are scratched online – where the chance of winning is much bigger.
Other traditional and entertaining games such as bingo and lotto have also become incredibly popular online.