37 Fun Facts About Gambling

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

Seven: that rule forces the 1, 2 and 3 faces to meet at one corner, leaving just two mirror-image layouts for a die.

Playing cards most likely first appeared in which country, around the 9th century?

China: cards probably grew out of printing on paper there, and they reached Europe through the Islamic world by the 1370s.

The joker was first added to the American deck as the top trump for which card game?

Euchre: a British firm was soon printing jokers for American packs, a few years before British packs carried one.

The word "roulette" is French for what?

Little wheel: its zero pockets are what give the house its edge.

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

Bad Homburg: the Blanc twins had opened its casino in 1841, and François later took his business to Monaco to run the Monte Carlo casino.

Which roulette betting system tells players to double their stake after every loss?

Martingale: the first win recovers every earlier loss plus one stake, but a long losing streak can wipe out the player's bankroll.

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

He won on red and walked out with $270,600, doubling his stake; he had sold everything he owned, including his clothes, to raise the $135,300.

Wild Bill Hickok was reputedly holding which two pairs when he was shot dead at a poker table in 1876?

Aces and eights: the story made black aces and eights known as poker's 'dead man's hand'.

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

More likely: lottery studies found that betting on a number falls sharply right after that number has been drawn.

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

Citizens of Monaco: yet the casino itself was opened to rescue the ruling Grimaldi family from bankruptcy.

Charles Fey's Liberty Bell, built in San Francisco in the 1890s, was an early version of what?

The slot machine: the Liberty Bell proved so popular that rival makers copied its basic design.

Which game in Japan's noisy parlours pays out in prizes that players can then sell for cash nearby?

Pachinko: gambling for cash is illegal in Japan, so parlours hand out prizes that nominally separate shops buy back.

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

Paradise: even so, the addresses of the Strip's resorts there still say Las Vegas.

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

El Rancho Vegas: Thomas Hull built it on Highway 91, just outside the city limits, to catch motorists driving in from Los Angeles.

Which mobster took over Billy Wilkerson's unfinished Flamingo resort, which opened in December 1946?

Bugsy Siegel: costs soared under him, his mob investors grew impatient, and he was shot dead in June 1947.

Which free attraction sat out front of the Mirage, the 1989 resort that began the Strip's megaresort era?

A volcano: after buying the resort, Hard Rock planned a guitar-shaped hotel tower to stand where the volcano was.

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

Utah and Hawaii: Utah's constitution forbids its legislature to authorise any game of chance or lottery 'under any pretense'.

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

NCAA: the college body and the major pro leagues had sued to block New Jersey's betting law, and the Court struck down the 1992 federal ban.

Which Asian country charges its own citizens and permanent residents a daily levy to enter its casinos?

Singapore: the levy, S$150 a day or S$3,000 a year, aims to deter casual and impulse gambling by locals.

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

Baccarat: high rollers betting borrowed cash in private VIP rooms drove much of that income.

Which businessman held Macau's exclusive gambling concession for about four decades from 1962?

Stanley Ho: he and his partners won the 1961 public tender, displacing the company that had run Macau's casinos before.

The early card game veintiuna appears in a novella by which Spanish author?

Miguel de Cervantes: in Rinconete y Cortadillo, a young card sharp boasts that he has earned his living playing veintiuna.

What is the traditional payout for a natural blackjack?

3 to 2: a $10 natural wins $15, though many tables pay only 6 to 5, a rule strongly in the casino's favour.

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

Snake eyes: rolled on the come-out, that 2 loses a pass-line bet, just as a 3 or a 12 does.

Which US state launched the first modern state lottery, in 1964?

New Hampshire: its towns voted by special ballot to allow it, and its profits have gone to the state's public schools.

Craps is thought to take its name from 'crabs', the lowest throws in which older dice game?

Hazard: the old dice game's name later took on its everyday meaning of risk or danger.

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

Powerball: the Altadena gas station that sold the winning ticket earned its owner a $1 million bonus.

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

A pair of jacks or better: until someone could open with jacks the pot kept growing, and 'hit the jackpot' later came to mean any big success.

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

Benny Binion: he invited top players to his Horseshoe in 1970, and they voted Johnny Moss the first world champion.

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

Chris Moneymaker: after his win, Main Event entries grew from 839 in 2003 to 8,773 by 2006.

Archie Karas drove to Las Vegas with $50 in 1992; roughly how much had his winning streak reached by 1995?

$40 million: soon afterwards he lost it all back again at the tables.

In US horse racing, a 'show' bet pays out if your horse finishes where?

In the top three: when a huge favourite is heavily backed to show, the minimum payout can cost more than the pool holds, a 'minus pool'.

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

The Stardust: Frank 'Lefty' Rosenthal, the model for De Niro's Ace Rothstein, secretly ran it for the Chicago Outfit, which skimmed its count room in the 1970s.

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

The MGM Grand: the crew times its raid on the vault for the night of a high-profile boxing match.

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

Blaise Pascal: he had already built one of the first mechanical calculators, to help his father, a tax collector in Rouen.

Which ancient Indian text has officials run gambling and take a cut of winnings?

The Arthashastra: its superintendent of gambling hires out honest dice, warning that gamblers are naturally false players.

Ancient Jewish authorities disqualified professional gamblers from doing what?

Testifying in court: the Talmud's sages split on why, and one said a gambler's winnings are money that isn't legally his.