Card Games
While the Chinese contend that playing cards were invented in 1120 A.D. as a diversion for the concubines of Emperor S'eun-ho, there is no assurance either that this date is accurate or that playing cards were made first in China. Without being able to fix any date, we do know that card-playing was an early pastime in India, Egypt, and Arabia.There are two kinds of card-game addicts. One is fascinated by the challenge of a card game, and he has no need to gamble to make cards interesting; to him, the game is an end in itself. The other is the inveterate gambler. He may think he likes a game, but, as a matter of fact, the game is only a means to an end—gambling. He may prefer cards as his media for gambling, but a horse race or a baseball game will serve his purpose if there is no card game on tap.
Most people who play cards, just for fun or for money, can take them or leave them alone. For them, cards fill in gaps of idleness and mean nothing more than that, and they are excellent for the purpose. There are those, too, who are so anxious to play cards that they do so every minute that they possibly can, like the commuters who play contract bridge or pinochle on their way to and from work.
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August 20, 2008