Twenty-one (banking game)

Twenty-one

The ancestor of blackjack and pontoon
An ace and ten scoring twenty-one
Origin	Probably Spain; popularized in France
Alternative names	Vingt-un, vingt-et-un, Siebzehn und Vier, Einundzwanzig
Type	Comparing
Players	Usually 3–7
Skills	Probability
Cards	32 or 52
Deck	French or German
Play	Clockwise or anti-clockwise
Chance	High
Related games
Blackjack  • Pontoon

Twenty-one, formerly known as vingt-un in Britain, France and America, is the name given to a family of popular card games of the gambling family, the progenitor of which is recorded in Spain in the early 17th century. The family includes the casino games of blackjack and pontoon as well as their domestic equivalents. Twenty-one rose to prominence in France in the 18th century and spread from there to Germany and Britain from whence it crossed to America. Known initially as vingt-un in all those countries, it developed into pontoon in Britain after the First World War and blackjack in Canada and the United States in the late 19th century, where the legalisation of gambling increased its popularity.