I’d like to take you back to the year 100 AD. Civilization has been around for a few thousand years already, but that doesn’t mean that most people – especially Europeans outside of Rome – are civilized yet. Wars and plunders are commonplace, and whenever there is a dispute between two nations it’s rarely solved with diplomacy and negotiations. More often than not, the slightest insult results in marching armies. Each ruler seeks to expand his territories by stealing from his neighbours while trying to keep his own provinces safe. Due to this tense atmosphere, it’s quite easy for certain regions to develop hostilities between each other. Two such regions are the Kingdom of Norway and the Kingdom of Sweden, whose kings have been trying to settle on their borders for years. I am not sure exactly how this conflict came to be, but I have a feeling that it’s due to the fact that both rulers were named Olaf (“There can be only one” and all that). Anyway, It seems inevitable that the dispute can only be solved through warfare… And then King Olaf of Norway receives a letter summoning him to a meeting with the Swedish King Olaf at Konungahella. Quite confused, the King of Norway takes some of his most trusted guards and goes there, not wishing to ruin an already very delicate relationship. In Konungahella, the king of Norway would meet personally with king Olaf of Sweden – a mild-mannered man who is surprisingly agreeable and easy to talk to. They spend hours negotiating their borders, finally agreeing on everything except for one thing – the province of Hising, which sometimes belonged to Sweden and sometimes to Norway. Unable to decide who should have it, the kings agree to cast dice for it, swearing that whoever rolls the higher number will own the territory. The Swedish king throws first, getting a pair of sixes. Quite content with his result, he assures king Olaf of Norway that he should not bother, but the king tries anyway, and much to everyone’s surprise, he also gets a pair of sixes. A reroll is immediately agreed upon, but the results are just as similar as the kings’ names. For the third time they roll, with the Swedish king once again receiving a pair of sixes. Meanwhile, the king of Norway gets one six… While the other die shatters in half from the impact, its sides turning up a seven. Seeing this as a sign from God, the king of Sweden immediately concedes the territory.
While this story is, in all likeliness, not true at all (the odds of two people throwing 5 pairs of sixes one after another are so low that it might as well be considered impossible), it serves to illustrate just how prominent gambling was in human consciousness. In the eyes of the people, gambling was so big that the results of a dice were considered God’s intervention, enough to solve a dispute between enemies! Of course, that shouldn’t come as a surprise at all – gambling and betting have been around since at least 2,300 BC, and while the modern casino games we play today such as blackjack and roulette are only about 250-300 years old, casino, in one form or another, has been around for much longer than that, and it has had a tremendous impact on the public consciousness throughout history. That is why this site exists – to explore and celebrate the rich history of gambling, betting and casino and to relay interesting anecdotes from it that you may or may not have heard of! I hope I can help you learn something new!