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James Bond’s famous line, “shaken, not stirred” when asking for a martini
is familiar to most of us, as is his appearances in elegant casinos where, if
he is not to busy drinking his martini, he is gambling at one of the crap tables
and walking away a winner with a beautiful girl on his arm.
Casinos are not just in James Bond movies though, as they can be found everywhere,
in just about every country. Games of chance are universal and exist in some
form or another in almost every country and every town. While betting can be
traced back to the 15th century when ancient lotteries first showed up in the
city of Burgundy, it wasn’t a game that was to stay limited to one isolated location.
Gambling quickly caught on with both the very poor, who had nothing to lose and
saw that they could win quickly by gambling all their cash away; and the very
rich who didn't care if they lost a lot of money, as long as they had a good
time.
Through it all, Poker has always been one of the most popular betting games
around and has become synonymous with taking chances and big cash prizes. Made
even more popular by the famous Western movies of the 1960s, it has gone on to
be the most popular wagering game in the online gambling world, where you can
make a million bucks and lose it inside a second.
Eventually, wagering games like Poker and Blackjack and Craps developed their
own mystique and became the basis for many a movie or best-selling book. Nevada,
which was the first state to legalize gambling, was primarily responsible for
the image the games obtained and opened the door for Atlantic City, New Jersey
to follow suit by also making gambling legal. After that, also casinos started
popping up on Indian reservations and the rest is history. Online gambling is
now a multi-billion dollar industry with its worth just last year estimated at
453 billion dollars. Clearly, online gambling is becoming more and more mainstream,
and is here to stay for everyone to enjoy. |
