Games

playing cards parts of a set or deck, used in playing various games of chance or skill. The origin of playing cards is unknown, and almost as many theories exist as there are historians of the subject. Playing cards were used hundreds of years ago in Europe and probably long before that in Asia. In the British Museum there is a 14th-century manuscript depicting a card game played by a king and two courtiers; the arrangement of the pips on the cards is similar to that of the present day. Playing cards are referred to in the household expense accounts of Charles VI of France for 1392. In 1397 the provost of Paris issued an edict prohibiting the people from playing certain games on working days, and among these, cards are mentioned. The manufacture of playing cards in Germany dates from the beginning of the 15th cent., and in Italy they were made in 1425. Playing cards appeared in England in 1463, and the earliest designs produced there were painted by hand. There were usually four suits; in Germany these were called hearts, bells, leaves, and acorns, while in Italy they were known as swords, batons, cups, and money. The present-day variety of hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades was adopted in France in the 16th cent. In addition to these cards, called numeral cards, there were also cards known as tarots , or triomphes (trumps), because when played in combination with numeral cards the tarots had a higher value. A full pack consisted of 78 cards, the 22 tarots and 56 others...

roulette , game of chance popular in gambling casinos, and in a simplified form elsewhere. In gambling houses the roulette wheel is set in an oblong table. Its outer area is marked off into 37 (in Europe) or 38 (in the United States) spaces, each of which has retaining walls so that a small ball may come to rest in one. The sectors, alternately red and black, are numbered 1 to 36; there is also a green (or sometimes white) 0 and in the United States an additional 00. On the table is an arrangement of red and black squares numbered in correspondence with the wheel. In addition, there are spaces for other types of bets: manque, that the winning number will be 1-18; passe, that it will be 19-36; pair, that it will be an even number; impair, that it will be odd; rouge, that it will be red; noir, that it will be black. All bets are placed against the house and are indicated by placing stakes on the layout. The croupier spins the wheel and tosses the ball onto it; its final place of rest indicates the winning bets. Many betting combinations are allowed, with varying odds and maximum stakes. Roulette dates from the late 18th cent.

crossword puzzle word game in which words corresponding to numbered clues are put into a grid of horizontal and vertical squares to form intersecting words. The puzzle is solved when a player supplies all of the words correctly. Though a type of crossword puzzle has been found inscribed on an ancient tomb in Egypt, journalist Arthur Wynne is generally credited with its invention in 1913. Crossword puzzles became popular with Simon and Schuster's 1924 publication of a crossword puzzle book and now appear in virtually all newspapers. Players vie for titles at various crossword competitions. Reference dictionaries are published to aid players with solutions. See acrostic ; anagram .