No matter I like to do for fun in my life, nothing can come close to the thrill and adrenaline rush that I would get every time I go out to the local gambling casino to try my luck there. It seems like it must be genetically built in for us as human beings. This is when I started to research the history of gambling. Turns out that human beings have been gambling ever since recorded history.
Archeologists were the first ones to find evidence of gambling behaviors in actual cavemen when they recovered dice-like objects that dated back over 41000 years ago that were made up animal bones. They also found cave paintings that depicted our ancestors performing gambling like behaviors. They even found pairs of dice that dated back to the Roman Empire. In fact during a period in Roman times it was required for parents to have their kids learn how to gamble. If this law were passed during modern times parents would be at an uproar over it, so in this aspect The roman empire was very liberal. In fact it was purported that ancient Roman soldiers actually gambled for the robes of Jesus.
Evidence of gambling was even found over 4000 years ago in the chinese culture. Their game of chance was developed by using actual riles. The ancient Greeks were the most perplexing when it came to their gambling behaviors. Although Greek soldiers loved to gamble with dice games, Greek society for some reason made gambling illegal. For a very liberal society as the Greeks this behavior always puzzled me.
As far as American gambling history the first gambling establishments back in early American times were called saloons. These saloons were not only important as hot gambling spots but they were a great place where weary travelers coming from all over the country could meet and make friends. In essence these saloons had started to become social areas where people could make long lasting bonds and associations for life. During the early part of the 20th century the American government for some reason felt that gambling should be banned so they made it so by passing a series of laws. In 1931 however, the government decided to make a compromise on this by making gambling legal in 2 states: Nevada and New Jersey. This is how these 2 states became famous gambling hubs with Atlantic City and Las Vegas leading the way.
We owe our gambling beginnings to a few ancient cavemen that decided that it would be fun throwing a few modified animal bones around. Imagine that.