The game of blackjack was born in the casinos in France around the 1700s. Back then, it was called “vingt-et-un” which means twenty one in French. In the Unites States, blackjack has been played since the 1800s. It adopted the name of Black Jack because when a player ran into a Jack of Spades and an ace of spades on the first two cards the player would win. The spade had to be black.