Tag Archives: history of gambling

HISTORY OF GAMBLING. PART 2

From 11th to 18th century

The next period of the history of gambling in the UK includes eight century. John Aston in his book The History of Gambling In England wrote: “In early English times we get occasional glimpses of gambling with dice.” According to his narration in 1190 only those who had the rank of a knight and above had a right to play games for money. But even these privileged people could play until they lose 20 shillings a day, not more. It was the beginning of the long procedure, lasting hundreds of years, when the rich tried to abridge the gambling practice among the masses.

In this period people enjoyed such distractions to bet on as bull baiting, pigeon racing and cockfighting. These betting events were very popular. Checkers and chess were also played for money but it’s disputable whether they were so popular.
In the 14th century cards almost replaced dice as game of chance. Cards came to Europe from Asia and within 100 years were played only across the continent. The decks were changed by Europeans, who creates the four suits that are known today. Ashton wrote that “James IV of Scotland surprised his future bride, Margaret, when he paid her his first visit, playing cards”.

The attempts of the nobility to prohibit men of common people to gamble continued. Henry VIII banned the lower classes from playing games for money. Among these games cards, as well as tennis, dice and bowls were named. This law forced many people to turn to drink and crime.

In the Elizabethan era the first British lottery appeared, and just in this period a new card game Primero, which had some similarity with poker that we can see now in every gambling casino online, gained popularity. The British lottery offered to wide public over 400,000 tickets, china and cash were among the prizes. King James established the first London lottery in 1612.

HISTORY OF GAMBLING. PART 1

Gambling history in Britain numbers centuries of successful development. British people have always enjoyed a cheeky gamble, even if it has been against the law. The longing for a guileful or crazy bet has never decreased from the time, when the Anglo-Saxons played the knucklebone dice to the bare fisted enforcers in London’s Victorian casinos. It is bred in the bone.

From prehistoric Britain to the XII century

Primitive men believed such religious rituals: if you throw the things like sticks, stones, bones, their location on the land will predict the future. This ritual has become later a sort of gambling. Primitive gamblers made their personal sacrifices or bets, which were offered to try to embolden positive results. In the end the rewards on offer turned into a real material benefit, such as a right to eat the best peace of the bag got during a hunting, which was received by the person with the best position of items. It was the beginning of gambling in the UK.
The only contribution of the Romans to the development of the gambling in Britain was their help in introducing dice games. It’s quite clear, considering that gambling was prohibited in Ancient Rome, except chariot races during Saturnalia.

Playing dices and Knucklebones became a favored pastime for the Anglo-Saxons.  Knucklebones or Fivestones is a distraction consisted in flinging animal knuckles into the air and catching them on the back of the hand. The person who caught the most of knuckles is proclaimed winner. So we can see that gambling was very popular in Britain in those days, it is also proved by gambling bones and dices found in graves dating this period.