The history of the game in Spain in a book.

Posted by Gambling news

November 15, 2008

Among the dice

bone or ivory from the Roman era and the virtual casinos on the Internet are far more than 2000 years of technological evolution, but the passion, vertigo or superstitions of the players have remained unchanged. < >

EFE So what Marc Fontbona notes in his book “History of Gambling in Spain” (Flor del Viento), a complete monograph on the evolution of gambling since the Roman Hispania to the present day with that fills a gap so far in the matter.

The taste for gaming and betting can be traced back to the dawn of ancient civilizations, as evidenced by the recent discovery in some excavations in Iran for a pair of dice dating in the year 3000 BC, though some authors link these instruments with more rituals of divination and magic than with the mere entertainment.

In the Iberian Peninsula, the Romans spread from the year 218 BC their culture and their customs, including a taste for the game, especially by the dice, with its many variants, but is also playing odd / even with the fingers, or betting on cock fights or races carriages .

The author’s passion for the game was already known then and traps, fights and gambling debts were part of everyday life.

The Arab invasion brought new forms of gambling which were transmitted to the Christian population, including the “shatranj”, a forerunner of chess variant which in turn came from a millennial Indian game, the “Chaturanga.”

Although chess has a status of “intellectual sport” during the Middle Ages was played in the tafurerías (former gambling) and not ceased to be a cause of conflicts and disputes, since the players always risking money.

In the order of the tafurerías (medieval rules of the game room) was accepted that Jews, Moors and Christians could play together, but in case of cheating, the Christians were imposed fines while Jews and Moors could finish Also in prison.

The origin of the card game is confusing, but it is known that became popular in the late Middle Ages and that the first reference in Europe is in 1371 in the Catalan manuscript “Diccionari of rims” of the poet James March, where he writes for the first time the word cards.

From here and in this same decade of the fourteenth century there many references to playing cards throughout Europe and now Prohibitions of the game are published in some territories, including the Crown of Aragon, before the “fever” unleashed by the new entertainment.

The lottery or raffle on a large scale, appeared in Europe in the fifteenth century systems with slow and cumbersome, while in Spain do not get a ranking officer until 1763, when the Marquis de Esquilache, head of public finance, persuaded Carlos III to establish a national lottery in Spain that led the state coffers.

The landscape of gaming has changed radically with the industrial revolution and its new-technology machinery, devices, gears, which became the new games in more colorful and fun, but also quicker and more profitable.

Roulette, whose popularity began in revolutionary France, does not go to Spain until the seventies of the nineteenth century, when it was installed in various casinos nineteenth century.

The book also looks at the most prohibitionist of the game in Spain, which began under the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera with the closure of casinos and entertainment circles and continued by the Franco regime, which, together with the National Lottery and football pools, tolerated Some activities for charitable purposes, such as the coupon of ONCE.

The arrival of Democracy was a stage for opening and regulating new forms of gambling in Spanish society with the reopening of casinos and licensing of bingo and amusement machines, while throwing their own autonomies lotteries.

At present, the game represents three percent of gross domestic product each country and largest Spanish-old spends annually more than 800 euros on gambling and betting, as the author explains, audiovisual training and dealer by vocation.

Fontbona estimated that, “beyond its bad reputation and the problem of pathological gambling and racketeering, gambling deserves recognition as a form of entertainment and as part of the culture,” and even for his service to mathematics, because, remember, “the balance of probabilities was born thanks to the game” and today is applied to fields as diverse as physics, finance or statistics.

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