The origin of Black Jack is not totally clear but the game can be traced back to seventeenth century France. In the game “vingt-et-nu (twenty-one) the object was to come as close to 21 as possible without going over. The game spread all over Europe before reaching America in the early 1800s. The name Black Jack occurred when casinos started to pay a player who had an ace of spades and a jack of spades as his opening hand ten times the original bet.
This bonus rule changed over the years and finally disappeared, but the name Black Jack lived on. Today Black Jack is both the name of the game and the term used when a player gets the magic number 21 with the two opening cards.
The interest in Black Jack exploded in the late 50s and early 60s. In this period several scholarly works, based on statistics and probability, on how to beat the house were published and the possibility of making money playing Black Jack increased dramatically. Of course the casinos responded in an attempt to even out the odds. For example, multiple decks are used to prevent card counting, but there are still many professional Black Jack Players that use these strategies with good result.
Black Jack is today the most popular game with recreational gamblers, mainly due to the fact that it is a game of significant skill and not only about luck.