101 Gambling Facts Before You Shell Out a Dime - Part 2

Gambling Facts and Figures

51. Historians have found documentation that tells us Napoleon really enjoyed playing a game or two of 21, or blackjack when he was in exile.
52. If you add up all of the opposing sides of one dice, you will always come up with a total of 7.
53. Roulette has rules that are easier to follow and understand than most other forms of gambling.
54. Video poker has been a part of the gambling world ever since the early 1970s.
55. The game of Baccarat was once played with Tarot cards.
56. Caribbean Stud Poker is a poker variation that is very popular worldwide. It was developed from a 16th century game called Primera.
57. There are 38 numbers on an American roulette wheel, 0, 00, 1 to 36.
58. There are 37 numbers of a French roulette wheel, 0 to 36.
59. Those who live in Nevada bet around $846 each year at the casinos.
60. The game of Baccarat was invented during the middle ages by Felix Falguiere, an Italian gambler.
61. One of the fastest growing forms of entertainment all over the world is casino gambling.
62. There are 11 different ways to make a wager in the game of roulette.
63. The British call slot machines ‘fruit machines’ and ‘one-armed bandits’.
64. The gambling game of strip poker originated in New Orleans, Louisiana around 1830.
65. Backgammon is the oldest recorded game in history. This game, which originated in Mesopotamia, is called by many different monikers.
66. Gambling has become a $40 billion dollar per year industry in just the United States alone.

Things You Probably Never Knew About Gambling

67. Blackjack tables have a little in common with baseball games. The seats at the table that are around the dealer are known as ‘bases’, and are known as first, second, and third base.
68. Baccarat came to Las Vegas in 1959 at the old Sands hotel. It probably was not well like by the hotel owners, as the Sands ended up losing $250,000 the first night on the baccarat tables!
69. There are three different varieties of baccarat. They are called ‘Chemin de fer’, or railway, ‘Baccarat Banque, or Adeux Tableaux, and Punto Banto, which means North American Baccarat.
70. Blackjack team play was invented by a man known as Al Franesco.
71. The zeros on roulette wheels are called the ‘House Edge’. The zeros were originally added to the wheel by its inventor in order to increase the house odds.
72. Caribbean Stud Poker found its way to the United States in the 18th century. It first surfaced in Louisiana, and then spread west.
73. Nowadays, you can learn how to play Craps on your Iphone!
74. A pair of dice has several nicknames. They can be called ‘Boxcars’, ‘Snake Eyes’, ‘Mississippi Marbles’, or ‘Memphis Dominoes’.
75. The fastest growing industry in the world in Indian gaming, which is a $27 billion per year industry in just the United States.
76. The name ‘Blackjack’ was derived from a variation of the original game rules, in which a player who had the black Jack of Spades received a payout.
77. The worst roulette bet, and why? It’s known as the 5 number bet, 0, 00, 1, 2, 3, and once made, the house edge jumps from 5.26% to 7.89%.
78. The game of Baccarat gets its name from the worst hand possible, zero.
79. The original name of Blackjack was ‘Ving-et-un’, which translates into the word ‘blackjack’.
80. The largest win at an online casino was $1, 683,524.64.
81. A sailor had 27 wins in a row playing Craps at a Las Vegas casino back in the 1950s. The odds of this happening are 12,467,890 to 1!
82. The game of Bingo originated in Italy during the year 1530.
83. In Australia and New Zealand, the term “Housie” is used for Bingo.

Gambling Trivia You Never Would Have Guessed

84. In the entire time the game of Keno has been played, a prize of $500,000 has been won four times, two times by the same player.
85. Roulette is the oldest of all casino games.
86. Keno was used in ancient China to raise money that was used to build the Great Wall of China.
87. Keno came to the United States in the 19th century.
88. It is possible to come up with 1,474, 200 different Bingo cards.
89. Playing cards as we know them today first appeared in Europe sometime during the 1300s.
90. Modern Bingo was devised from a game known as Beano. When a player mistakenly called out “Bingo” instead of “Beano”, the name caught on everywhere.
91. A little more than 70% of the high rollers in Vegas who enjoy playing Baccarat are Asian bankers and Asian industrialists.
92. Keno goes back to the Han Dynasty in Chinese history between 205 and 187 B.C.
93. In South America and Europe, the game of Baccarat goes by the name of Punto Banco. Punto Banco is usually a high roller game.
94. The age of the youngest person to win the World Series of Poker main event was a tender 24.
95. It is possible to make 2,598,960 poker hands from a standard 52-card deck.
96. The odds of being dealt the hand known as a ‘pocket pair’ in Poker are 16 to 1.
97. There are only 4 possible Royal Flush hands in a standard 52-card deck.
98. The odds of getting a Royal Flush hand are 649,740 to 1.
99. More than 70 million decks of standard playing cards are sold each and every year.
100. That sandwich you ate yesterday got its name from a poker player. The Earl of Sandwich loved poker so much he was loathe to leave the game table, even to eat. So, he would have someone bring him bread and some meat, and the sandwich was born!
101. The nickname for a pair of 8s in the game of poker is Pocket Snowmen.