Ancient Gambling Sites
Gambling Sites from the early days
It seems some gambling sites might be as old as 5,000 years! Astounded? It might interest you to know that gambling is an age-old sport and the earliest six-sided cubical dice was dated to 3,000 BC i.e. gambling as a sport began over 5,000 years ago.
When archeologists located these dice at various deemed gambling sites, they also found clay tablets that appeared to be records of some sort. So far no one has been able to decipher the meaning of the various symbols and figures on the clay tablets but most experts agree that it might not be wrong to surmise that these might have been records of losses and winnings that might have taken place at these ancient gambling sites.
As far as casino card games were concerned, the earliest evidence comes from Korea and are dated to around 6th Century A.D. Playing cards found at Korean gambling sites were made of oiled paper and silk and most of these gambling sites were located along the water-front. Not surprisingly, when the Chinese sailors and traders introduced the Korean playing cards to China, the Chinese in turn, enterprising as always, modified these playing cards to make them more player friendly. The world’s first paper playing cards originated and were used in the Chinese gambling sites. It seems the Chinese were busy exporting to the world even before the word “Global market” was coined.
For those of you who might be interested in how these ancient cards used at gambling sites were made, scholars will tell you that these cards were made using stencils and woodblocks. Many members of the ruling families in Europe visited these gambling sites and were avid players of the game. There was also a lot of money involved which in turn resulted in the further development of the playing cards. Famous painters of the time were commissioned to paint cards and make them more colorful and presentable. In due course of time, these paintings were transferred to the stencils and blocks and so the modern deck of cards was born in the gambling sites of Europe.
Apart from playing cards in Europe, gambling sites in Mesopotamia, India, Persia, Egypt and China led to the discovery of gaming boards that were remarkably similar to modern day backgammon boards. A pair of dice was thrown onto the board to decide how the pieces of the game moved. In need, the earliest reference to the gaming boards is found in the Indian epic Mahabharata said to be over 5,000 years old. In an episode in this great epic, an uncle of a Prince, cheats in a game of dice and wins the kingdom and vast amounts of wealth on behalf of his nephew. Astonishing! We wish someone would offer a Kingdom and gold at any of our modern day gambling sites.
In fact, there is another similar account of a game of dice being used by Parysatis, the mother of King Artarxerxes. According to Plutarch, a Greek biographer and historian, Parysatis defeats her son King Artarxerxes in a game of dice and wins over a servant – a favorite of King Artarxerxes. The servant had earlier killed one of her sons Cyrus. Once she wins the servant in the game of dice, she kills the servant to avenge her dead son. It seems, the gambling sites of the past not only used gambling for sport and entertainment, they also used it to settle scores diplomatically. Imagine the President of United States playing dice with President of Iran – wouldn’t that have been fun? Perhaps our forefathers were wiser than we are today.
You might also be surprised to know that laws regulating gambling are not new. In fact, the first gambling laws came into existence in 3,000 B.C. Tablets affixed on walls at gambling sites spoke of rules of the game and how much was to be paid in taxes to the royal treasury. If gambling rules were formed that meant gambling was an extremely popular sport.
