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In Texas hold’em poker, each player is dealt two cards, known as ‘hole’ cards, face down. The player immediately to the left of the dealer, known as the ‘small blind’, and the player to his left, known as the ‘big blind’, are required to make compulsory, albeit small, bets so there is something in the pot for players to win. A round of betting proceeds to the left, during which each player may call, raise or fold.

The dealer discards, or ‘burns’, the uppermost card in the deck and deals the first three ‘community’ cards, collectively known as the ‘flop’. By using the hole cards and the community cards, each player decides on the best actual, or possible, hand he can form and another round of betting follows accordingly.

The dealer burns another card and deals the fourth community card, known as the ‘turn’ card. Another round of betting follows, before the dealer burns another card and deals the fifth, and final, community card, known as the ‘river’ card. After another round of betting, the remaining players, starting with the last player to bet, or raise, reveal their hole cards and the player with the highest five-card combination wins. The highest possible hand is a royal flush or, A, K, Q, J, 10 all of the same suit, followed by a straight flush, or any sequence of five cards all of the same suit, followed by four of a kind, and so on down to a high card, which can still be a winning hand.

Whether you love busting blackjack dealers or spinning roulette wheels, you know that nothing beats the thrills of the casino. Casinos have been entertaining gamblers for centuries. However, since the doors of the first casino opened in 1638, the casino – and the way we play casino games – has evolved phenomenally.

Early European casinos in areas like Baden Baden, Germany, and Monte Carlo, Monaco, were built more like palaces than gambling houses. Grand interiors, high-stakes gaming tables and elegant dress codes made them hugely popular with aristocrats and the upper classes throughout the 18^th and 19^th century.

The gambling scene across the pond remained far less glamorous during that time. The first casino on America soil didn’t open until 1931, when Nevada lifted a gambling ban that had formerly been imposed on every state. Vegas quickly became a hotspot for gambling tourism, attracting gamblers from all walks of life – not just the upper classes.

The Mafia were quick to cash in on Vegas’ popularity, using their influence to transform dingy casinos into all-singing-all-dancing casino resorts that drew big stars like Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra to the strip. It pathed the way for the casino mega resorts we see there today.

You can find out more about the evolution of the casino by checking out the below infographic, brought to you by the bgo Slots Online Casino.

Craps is, of course, a casino game in which players bet on the outcome of a roll, or a series of rolls, of a pair of dice. The name ‘craps’ is believed to be an Anglicisation of the French word ‘crapaud’, meaning ‘toad’ which, in turn, is derived from how a precursor of craps, called ‘hazard’, was played by people crouched on floors or pavements in seventeenth century France. However, the origins of hazard are believed to be much older. The invention of the game is credited to William of Tyre, during the siege of the castle of Hazarth – after which the games was probably named – in the early twelfth century.

 

Fast forward five hundred years or so and craps was a simplification of hazard created in France in the late sixteenth century. In the early nineteenth century, the game was introduced to New Orleans by French-American nobleman Bernard de Marigny who, as an errant young man, spent time frequenting the gambling houses of London. In the early years of the twentieth century, John H. Winn, a.k.a. ‘the Father of Modern-Day Craps’, remedied an obvious flaw in the game, by allowing ‘pass’ and ‘don’t pass’ options. His innovation revolutionised craps and encouraged its spread throughout French Louisiana and along the Mississippi River. Fast forward again, to the early Thirties, and the legalisation of gambling in Nevada further increased the popularity of craps and it has remained a rollicking, social game on the tables of Las Vegas ever since.

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Gambling was legalised in Atlantic City, New Jersey following a referendum in 1976 and, two years later, Resorts International, now Resorts Casino Hotel, on the famous Atlantic City Boardwalk became the first legal casino in the United States outside Nevada. Fast forward four decades or so and, according the latest report by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, far and away the most profitable land-based casino in Atlantic City is The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa which, in the year to April, 2019, grossed $53.37 million, or nearly double the revenue of its nearest competitor.

Opened in July, 2003, making it the newest casino in Atlantic City, The Borgata is one of three casinos in the marina district of the city, the others being Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City and the Golden Nugget. Harrah’s, which opened in November, 1980, is the oldest of the three and was, in fact, the first casino in Atlantic located away from the boardwalk. At one point in its history, Harrah’s was the highest-grossing casino in Atlantic City but, as of April, 2019, ranked second behind The Borgata, with annual revenue of $27.18 million.

Third on the list comes Tropicana Atlantic City, with annual revenue of $24.02 million. Originally opened, on the Boardwalk, in November, 1981, nearly two years after original owners, Ramada, acquired the Tropicana Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip in December, 1979, Tropicana Atlantic City is, nowadays, one of the largest hotels in New Jersey, with 2,400 rooms.