The exact origin of gambling is unknown. The Chinese recorded the first official account of the practice in 2300 B.C., and it is generally believed that gambling, in one form or another, has been present in almost every society since. From the Ancient Greeks and Romans to Napoleon's France and Elizabethan England, history is rich with tales of exploits based on the games of chance.
Many present-day gambling games are incarnations of previous games. The French working class of the sixteenth century became adept at the Egyptian game of roulette, while Napoleon took interest in the card game "vingt-et-un" - what is now known as blackjack or twenty-one. …
