Blackjack: The game of luck with an illusion of skill. Blackjack is a very old game,originating back to the early 1800s (at least in the US) and claiming its name at the tail end of the 19th century. In Blackjack, each player is given a card with a value ranging from one through eleven. Specifically, the Ace card can be used as a value of one or a value of eleven–at the player’s discretion. Then, every player is given another card. Once again, that card has a value ranging from one through eleven. Then, each player is given the choice of taking new, random cards and adding them to their hand. In blackjack, the vast majority of games come down to pure luck, but the illusion of challenging the dealer obfuscates that and makes players think they can potentially outsmart the dealer and win.
The primary goal of the game is to get one’s point value of their hand as close to 21 as possible without going over. The secondary goal of the game is to beat the dealer’s hand. In addition to each player choosing to take additional cards, the dealer can also choose to take additional cards. The cards of every player are public, and the dealer begins with one public and one private card. Once every player has taken as many cards as they would like, the dealer reveals their second cards and takes their turn. If the dealer “busts”–meaning the point value of their hand is greater than 21–every player who did not bust wins that round and earns money. Typically, the amount of money a winning player receives is double what they bet, but this can vary from place to place. If the dealer does not bust, then only the players whose hands have a higher point value than them and did not bust win anything. The exception to this is if a player has exactly a 21 (a blackjack). In that case, they instantly win regardless of what the final point value of the dealer’s hand is.
The time factor in blackjack is a big one. Games of blackjack move very fast, so it is very easy to convince yourself (or have the dealer convince you) that you can play “just one more game.” This can lead to gambling addictions as a player’s odds of winning are high enough that they could reasonably convince themself that they could win on the next game. Likewise, if a player chooses to play “just one more game” and regrets it, that game will be over very quickly, and this could encourage that player to play yet another “just one more game.”
As mentioned previously, the fact that you can lose to the dealer pushes players to make risky choices and take “just one more card” even when they shouldn’t. This false sense of competitiveness makes the player feel like the outcome is partially within their control. These two factors together just push more and more and more for people to try and beat the dealer and ultimate bust out.
