The History of Playing Cards

Many online casino players are interested in game rules and strategies but some players also care about the history and development of their favorite games. They believe it gives them a better understanding of the game and provides them with anecdotal point of view towards the game.

Card games are many and varied and many of them can be applied as gambling games. Card games are a very important part of the games that online casino games offer such as blackjack, baccarat, poker, red dog, pai gow poker.

In most online casinos the games mentioned above are offered in many variations and can be played for different level stakes.

The one thing that all these games have in common is the fact that they all use a standard 52-card deck and when you think about this fact its rather amazing that so many different games have developed from the same deck of cards.

Many believe that playing cards originate from ancient India, however the earliest evidence that were found of the use of playing cards were from 9th century China. It was played by members of the Tang Dynasty to pass the time and later on by the Song Dynasty whose scholars wrote about the development of playing cards by the Tang Dynasty and is repeated in writings of future dynasties.

It is unclear if playing cards traveled to Europe from Asia with the help of Asian immigrants or whether it was European traveling merchants who discovered them in their travels to Asia and brought them back with them to Europe.

One theory claims that playing cards were brought to Europe from India by the Saracens as early as 1275 AD. They slowly spread throughout Europe and were noticed in England from 1464.

Another theory claims that playing cards were brought to Europe from Egypt in the 14th century by the Mamulk people. Those cards had four suits that were based on tarot cards and used the symbols of Coins, Cups, Staves and Swords. You can see evidence of tarot based cards these days in countries such as Spain, Italy and Portugal.

Historians are not sure if the Mamluks cards influenced Indian cards or vice versa. The Mamluks playing cards did not depict people and the Indian playing cards were round in design.

Over the years the designs have changed and took on more European influences until they developed to the traditional 52-cards playing deck we know today.