The history of gambling is all about multiplayer!
The very concept of a bet requires at least two people to wager against one another in order for there to be a winner.
Heads you win; tails you lose…
ANCIENT GAMBLING
We have archaeological evidence of gambling from prehistoric times and in stories and myths, gambling is a common feature – in ancient Greek myth, the gods gambled with dice against one another to split the universe between them.
Nor were ancient gambling games just about small groups – we also have evidence of large-scale games like lotteries in ancient Mesopotamia, China and Rome.
Then as now, large-scale games like lotteries were encouraged by the authorities as a way to raise funds for public works, from repairing defences to alternative taxation.
14TH CENTURY
Games come and go in fashion.
Playing cards were introduced to Europe in the second half of the 14th century from the Islamic world. Soon, the various games played with a pack of cards were the favourite form of gambling, along with dice, all over the world. They were cheap to manufacture, easy to carry and could be played anywhere from street corners and army barracks to the houses and salons of the nobility.
Some games were most loved as two handers, where individuals pitted their wits and luck against one another – gambling on who would win, and by how much. Piquet and cribbage or rummy are two popular examples.
Others, such as bridge and whist, called for 4 players in partnerships and each country had their own unique variations on the games – some in Austria and Germany for example, inventing a deck of cards different to the more familiar pack we use today – the tarock pack.
mid twentieth century
poker came to replace bridge as the gambling card game of choice.
The Association of American Card Manufacturers carried out a survey in the 1940s. 47% of women and 30% of men played Contract Bridge, while only 22% of men and just 5% of women played poker.
Although betting did happen on bridge (at the beginning of each game), poker with the multiple bets that take place during a game, is better suited in many ways to gambling – perhaps that was why it came to dominate as the game of choice in casinos and – eventually – in online play.
In modern casinos, poker is the biggest multiplayer game still in existence.
According to poker scout (https://www.pokerscout.com/)
There are 23,231 cash players online for the 80 sites they track at any one point.
What all these games, from the earliest drawing of lots to modern card games, have in common is that they require people to be betting against one another.
In the modern gambling industry, this is called
“peer-to-peer gambling”.
In such play the company organising the event (the casino or sportsbook), is making money either through a difference in the rate at which it buys or sells odds, or a rake on bets or on winnings.