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Gambling Through Time: Part 2 - Games in the Middle Ages
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When the Roman Empire fell at the end of the 5th Century, much of the civilized world fell into darkness. Even games, which had flourished and advanced along with society, fell back on more remedial forms. For nearly a thousand years most of the developed world stagnated. Only in Asia, and more specifically China, did games continue to grow and change thanks to the recent invention of paper.
The Middle Ages—often referred to as the Dark Ages—were a grim time for most of Europe which suffered under the rule of less educated civilizations than the now bygone Roman Empire. The rich were getting richer, and the poor were getting poorer. The most elaborate games were reserved for royalty, the only people that had the time or money to enjoy them. That said, the beleaguered people of the lower classes still found enjoyment in simple games and sports. Dice remained one of the most popular games among the poor because they were so cheap and simple to construct and so easy to carry around; this is where Hazard has its origins. The Olympics were replaced by primitive animal competitions like cockfighting, and poor men made or lost their meager fortunes betting on how a tossed knife or coin would fall.
The first decks of playing cards appeared in China in the 10th Century and quickly made their way across the continent to India, eventually crossing over into the Middle East. Europe's games remained dice-focused until the first Crusades to the Middle East began in the 11th Century. Games and gambling in Europe flourished anew thanks to the Eastern inventions and ideas that the soldiers brought home with them over the next two centuries, playing cards being chief among them.
By the end of the 14th Century, handmade decks had replaced dice as the gambling implement of choice and new gambling laws were springing up all over Europe in an attempt to regulate the population's growing gambling habit. After the invention of the first printing press in 1440, it wasn't long before decks were being mass-produced, allowing for more consistency in game rules. Of course the printing press revolutionized not only gaming but the world by making books available to the middle and lower classes. The first government-run lotteries started to pop up as a way of subsidizing taxes. As the feudal system crumbled, most aristocracies adopted a more democratic view toward their patrons. This meant better wages and thus a better standard of living for people in general, and the end result, as it pertains to our topic, was more recreational gambling.
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