50 Fun Facts About Gambling

On a standard die, the numbers on opposite faces always add up to what?

Terracotta dice from the Indus Valley, 4,000 years old, already followed the rule.

The oldest known dice, from around 2800 to 2500 BC, were found at the Burnt City in which modern country?

They were part of a backgammon-like set; Romans later played with two sizes of dice despite official bans on gambling.

Playing cards were invented in which country, around the 9th century?

They reached Europe via Mamluk Egypt in the late 1300s, and the French suits we use were fixed around 1480.

The joker was added to the deck in the United States around 1860 as a trump card for which game?

The ace of spades, meanwhile, once carried England's tax stamp, which is why it is still the fancy one.

The Ridotto, generally considered the first casino, opened in 1638 in which city?

Patrons had to wear masks and three-cornered hats; the city closed it in 1774 to preserve public piety.

The word "roulette" is French for what?

The wheel is often traced to Blaise Pascal's 17th-century attempts at a perpetual motion machine.

The single-zero roulette wheel was introduced in 1843 by the Blanc brothers in which German spa town?

It halved the house edge to 2.7 percent; American wheels kept the double zero and its 5.26 percent.

What is the house edge on a double-zero American roulette wheel?

No betting system beats it: every pattern-based strategy loses on average over time.

What happened when Ashley Revell bet his entire $135,300 on a single roulette spin in 2004?

The ball landed on red seven and he walked out with $270,600.

In 1913 at Monte Carlo, black came up how many times in a row as gamblers lost fortunes on red?

The episode gave the gambler's fallacy its other name, the Monte Carlo fallacy.

The gambler's fallacy holds that a random outcome that has happened less often than expected is now what?

Its mirror image is the hot-hand fallacy, expecting a streak to continue.

Who is famously forbidden from entering the gaming rooms of the Monte Carlo Casino?

Princess Caroline imposed the rule on moral grounds; the casino was redesigned by Paris Opera architect Charles Garnier.

Joseph Jagger "broke the bank at Monte Carlo" in 1873 by exploiting what?

The music-hall song about breaking the bank was probably inspired by a later winner, Charles Wells.

Charles Fey's Liberty Bell, built in San Francisco around 1895, was an early version of what?

Its three reels carried horseshoes, diamonds, spades, hearts and a cracked bell.

Why did lemons, cherries and plums end up as symbols on early one-armed bandits?

The gum attachment got around anti-gambling laws and gave Britain the term "fruit machine".

Roughly what share of an average US casino's income comes from slot machines?

The first fully electromechanical machine, Bally's Money Honey, arrived in 1963 and could pay out 500 coins on its own.

The Las Vegas Strip mostly lies outside the city of Las Vegas, in which unincorporated town?

The 4.2-mile stretch technically sits in Paradise and Winchester in Clark County.

Which resort was the first full-service casino hotel on what became the Strip, opening in April 1941?

It had 63 bungalow rooms; the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign did not go up until 1959.

Which mobster financed the Flamingo, which opened in December 1946?

His bosses believed he had skimmed about $1 million; he was shot dead through a Beverly Hills window in June 1947.

The Mirage's 1989 opening is credited with starting the mega-resort era. What attraction sat outside it?

The Bellagio's fountains followed in 1998, and the MGM Grand, one of the world's largest hotels, opened in 1993.

In which year did Nevada legalise casino gambling?

New Hampshire launched the first modern state lottery in 1963 and Atlantic City approved casinos in 1976.

Which two US states ban every form of gambling, including lotteries?

The 2018 Murphy v. NCAA ruling let the other states legalise sports betting.

The 2018 Supreme Court case that opened the door to legal US sports betting was Murphy v. whom?

It struck down the 1992 federal law that had confined sports books almost entirely to Nevada.

Which gambling hub overtook the Las Vegas Strip in gaming revenue in 2007?

It is the only place in its country where casinos are legal, and gaming taxes fund about three-quarters of its government.

Which game produced about 91 percent of Macau's casino income in 2014?

The punto banco version is the only game played in the VIP rooms; the banker bet's house edge is just 1.06 percent.

Which businessman held the exclusive gambling concession in Macau from 1962 until 2001?

The market was liberalised in 2002, and the Venetian Macao is now the territory's largest casino.

Blackjack descends from a Spanish game first described by which author, in 1601-02?

The game was veintiuno, twenty-one; the name blackjack only stuck in America around 1899.

Whose 1963 book Beat the Dealer proved that card counting could beat the casino at blackjack?

The MIT professor's maths turned blackjack into the most-played casino banking game in the world.

What is the traditional payout for a natural blackjack?

Some casinos have quietly cut it to 6 to 5, which roughly triples the house edge on the game.

The MIT Blackjack Team's exploits inspired the 2008 film 21 and which Ben Mezrich book?

The team, formally launched in 1980 with $89,000, used spotters to count and big players to swoop in when the deck turned hot.

The 1988 film Rain Man is blamed for spreading which misconception about US casinos?

Raymond and Charlie win $86,000 at Caesars Palace before being asked to leave, which casinos can do, but no law was broken.

In craps, what is a roll of two ones called?

Two sixes are boxcars; the game grew out of the English game hazard, brought to New Orleans around 1805.

Around 1907, dice maker John H. Winn added which bet to craps, giving casinos a reason to use fair dice?

The game exploded in popularity when World War II soldiers played it on blankets, then took over postwar Vegas.

Keno slips from China's Han dynasty are believed to have helped pay for which project?

Chinese railroad workers brought the game to the American West, where casinos still offer it with some of the worst odds in the building.

In a game of keno, how many numbers are drawn from the 80 on the board?

The odds of hitting all 20 on a 20-spot ticket are about one in 3.5 quintillion.

The world's oldest still-running lottery, dating from 1726, belongs to which country?

Queen Elizabeth I ran England's first official lottery in 1566, but the Dutch Staatsloterij has never stopped.

The $2.04 billion jackpot of November 2022, then a world record, was won in which US game?

Spain's Christmas lottery, El Gordo, hands out more total prize money than any other draw.

Which universities were partly funded by colonial American lotteries?

Lotteries also paid for the Jamestown settlement and the Revolutionary War.

The word "jackpot" comes from an 1880s poker rule about which cards?

The antes accumulated until someone could open with jacks; slot machines borrowed the word in the 1930s.

Who organised the first World Series of Poker in 1970 at his Horseshoe casino?

Johnny Moss was voted the first champion by his fellow players and received a silver cup, not cash.

Which amateur's 2003 World Series of Poker win, after qualifying online for $86, set off the poker boom?

He collected $2.5 million; by 2024 the Main Event drew 10,112 entries and a $94 million prize pool.

Archie Karas arrived in Las Vegas in 1992 with $50 and ran it up to more than how much in about 2.5 years?

He lost about $30 million of it in three weeks in 1995, mostly at craps and baccarat.

What does the Kentucky Derby winner receive that gives the race its floral nickname?

The 2017 race took $209 million in bets; Secretariat's 1973 record of 1:59.4 still stands.

The fictional Tangiers in Scorsese's Casino (1995) was based on which real Las Vegas casino?

Robert De Niro's Ace Rothstein was modelled on Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, who ran casinos for the Chicago Outfit.

In Ocean's Eleven (2001), the crew robs the shared vault of the Bellagio, the Mirage and which casino?

The haul is about $160 million on the night of a boxing match; the film is a remake of a 1960 Rat Pack picture.

Roulette is thought to have developed from Biribi, a game from which country?

The mechanism itself is a hybrid of Biribi and a gaming wheel invented in 1720.

Which mathematician reputedly created a primitive roulette wheel while chasing perpetual motion?

He is also credited with founding probability theory in correspondence about gambling problems.

Richard Jarecki won about $1.2 million at European casinos in the 1960s and 70s by doing what?

He publicly claimed a system built on a powerful computer; in reality he was tracking biased wheels by hand.

Which Indian text of about the 4th century BCE recommends taxing and controlling gambling?

Older Hindu poems such as the Gambler's Lament and the Mahabharata dwell on gambling's ruinous effects.

Ancient Jewish authorities disqualified professional gamblers from doing what?

Islamic scholars likewise agree gambling is haram, and several Christian churches forbid it outright.