Some things you might not know

3 September 2016

By John Marchel

By definition, gambling is the wagering of money or something of value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods. Gambling thus requires three elements be present: consideration, chance and prize.

The outcome of the wager is often immediate, such as a single roll of dice or a spin of a roulette wheel, but longer time frames are also common, allowing wagers on the outcome of a future sports contest or even an entire sports season.

The history of gambling goes back a very long time. There are records of gambling activities dating back to the very beginning of documented human history. People had already been gambling for thousands of years when the ancient Greeks were betting on wrestling matches during the Olympic Games of 776 BC.

Mankind was gambling on things for thousands of years everywhere around the world. Betting on events, like battles or gladiator matches, is likely the oldest form of gambling.

BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW

• The popularity of wrestling has survived in many countries throughout the world, particularly in Japan. It was in Japan where the first recorded wrestling match took place in 23 B.C. Later, in 858 AD, the throne of Japan was settled on the outcome of a wresting match. The emperor Buntoka had two sons, Koreshito and Koretaka, both of whom aspired to the throne. To resolve the problem it was decided they each would bet on a professional wrestler and the winning son of the match would become the next Emperor. Koreshito’s wrestler won the match and followed his father to the throne.

• When Americans began to make their own decks of playing cards in the 1800s, it was the new world where the following features were added to cards and became the standard we still see today:
- cards became double-headed.

- Varnish surfaces were applied.

- Indexes were applied on the upper and lower corners of each card.

- Rounded, instead of square, corners were used.

- The joker was introduced.

• It has been recorded that the French in New Orleans in the early 1800s were given credit for the developed the dice game of craps. However, the name “craps” itself is believed to be a corruption of the French pronunciation of the word “crabs,” which means a pair of ones.

• All 13 original colonies established lotteries, usually more than one to raise dearly needed revenue. Those proceeds helped establish some of the nation’s earliest and most prestigious universities.

They included; Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Princeton, and William & Mary. Lottery funds were also used to build churches and libraries. Ben Franklin, John Hancock and George Washington were prominent sponsors of specific lotteries for public works projects.

• Casanova (1725-1798) whose full name was Giaconda Jacopo Casanova de Seingalt, the Italian adventure, soldier, spy, diplomat, rogue, writer and great lover of women; was a gambler by profession. He had made his living throughout his life at that occupation.

• When one adds up the number of letters that are used for the names of playing cards; ace (3), two (3), three (5), four (4), five (4), six (3), seven (5), eight (5), nine (4), ten (3), jack (4), queen (5), king (4), the total number comes to 52. That is the same number in a standard deck of playing cards.