168 Blackjack

An Introduction to Playing Blackjack

The casinos in Nevada--- and everywhere else--- have one goal and that is to take a visitor's money like boll weevils take cotton. People gamble in casinos and some win consistently--- not at every session, but consistently overall.

Among the games played in modern casinos, Twenty-One, or Blackjack is unique by offering a skilled player the opportunity to compete against the house and have a statistical probability of winning.

The design of all other games gives the casino a mathematical advantage by providing payoffs of players' winning bets in amounts slightly or greatly less than true odds would require.

As a single example, a winning bet on one number at roulette pays 35 to 1 (or 36 to 1). Since 38 numbers are present on the American wheel, a payoff at true odds would require 37 to 1. Thus, on a single turn of the wheel, if the players should bet an equal unit amount on every number, the casino would return 36 units for the number that won and retain 2 units for itself as profit.

Since a casino is in business to make money, you might ask why it would provide a game that can be beaten. The answer is twofold: the overwhelming majority of players do not have the knowledge and skill to beat the game or even to come close. Second, it is probable that when the game was installed, the casino managers did not realize that the game would leave them vulnerable to defeat.

However, the history of Twenty-One or Blackjack is obscure. It seems to have evolved from one or a variety of similar games long played in Europe. It was known in this country during the last century and became popular during the early twentieth century.

Variations have been played extensively in the armed forces for years, and Blackjack has enjoyed considerable popularity in clubs and homes and at private parties. Over the years this game has developed into one of the most popular of all casino games.

The precise rules of the casino version of Blackjack must have been developed empirically as the proprietors sought to provide themselves an advantage yet to offer the player an interesting game that seemed to give the player some prospect of winning. A game that took a player's money too fast or that failed to provide him with occasional short winning streaks would soon drive him to another diversion.

But unlike dice games, wheel games, lotteries, and some card games, Blackjack did not lend itself to a calculation of a precise overall house advantage; among other difficulties this could be calculated only if players acted consistently.