As one of the most popular games at online and traditional casinos today, players may wonder where baccarat originated. The truth is that baccarat enjoys a long and interesting history, based on a legend nearly 2000 years old!

Around the 14^th century, when card games were becoming a popular form of entertainment, it is believed that one of the earliest forms of baccarat was being played in Italy, based on a 2000 year old legend relating to nine gods. The game quickly became appealing to the population and came to be known as baccarat. The popularity of baccarat spread across Europe, especially to France where it became known as ‘chemin de fer’. In fact, baccarat was so popular in France that the population actually claimed the game as their own and it became a jealously guarded pastime among the French nobility who refused to disclose its rules to the ‘common’ casinos of the time!

Over the centuries, the game of baccarat reached the shores of South America, especially among the parlors of the continent’s nobility. The wealthy population of Argentina became obsessed with chemin de fer and, yet again, the game’s popularity spread across South America to Cuba where it experienced a slight change in the rules. It was at this point in time that American baccarat was created.

In the 1950s, a casino owner from Havana took his expertise to Nevada and introduced the game to local gambling establishments. Baccarat was an instant success among American gamblers looking for a new and exciting game with a low house edge, easy rules and an exotic touch. American baccarat is the game most played in American casinos today, while a slightly different version, chemin de fer, is played in Europe.

When the online casino hit the scene in the 1990s, baccarat made an almost seamless transition to the wonderful world of the internet. Today, the baccarat game can be found in literally thousands of online casinos on the web and is played on a daily basis by millions of players who can access a game within seconds and play from the comfort of their own homes. Exciting baccarat tournaments, progressive baccarat games and other twists keep players coming back for more. The future of baccarat looks excellent as software companies create games that are more and more realistic with each passing year.

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Although European roulette came first, it is the American roulette style that has the longer pedigree.

Exactly when people first began wagering over the spin of a wheel is anybodies guess but the first roulette-like games appeared in Europe during the 1700s. The early games may have come from various sources including the Far East where the Chinese taught European traders original games that may have been the harbingers of roulette.

By the end of the 18^th century Parisian casinos were offering a standardized roulette and gamblers flocked to place bets on the spinning wheel. Original roulette wheels had the numbers from 1 to 36 and two zeros allowing for 38 possible outcomes. The game was a crowd puller and the cream of European society could be found around the felt tables as huge sums of money were made or lost. The game spread across the Atlantic and US gamblers caught the roulette craze.

During the 1800s another version of roulette gained popularity in Europe. Rather than two zeros the new European roulette game had only one, giving just 37 possible outcomes. This small but significant change increased the winning odds of the player and understandably became very popular eventually ousting its predecessor. At about that time Monte Carlo became a casino hotspot and its gambling houses offered the new version of roulette. The fame of Monte Carlo helped boost the new European roulette and the 37-slot wheel eventually became the standard in Europe.

However, the original form of the game survived in America where casinos preferred to keep the odds just the way they had always been. Casinos continued to play with a 38-slot wheel and this eventually became known as American roulette. The arrangement has remained to this day and if you enter US casino then American roulette is most likely the game you will find.

For those in doubt, it easy to tell which style of roulette is being played at a table. European roulette tables mark numbers on the table with the same colors as they are found on the wheel itself whereas at an American roulette table all the numbers are printed in the same color on the green table. Failing that – or if playing on an online casino - just look at the number of zeros available – it’s a dead giveaway!

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