Magical Gambling Boards
Take a new look at the blackjack table you're playing on, as we give you a different perspective on gambling.
Did you know that religion and gambling have something very significant in common?
Both can't begin until an official representative, whether priest or dealer, marks out a place where the ceremony or ritual can take place. In the Church, synagogue or temple, it is the altar. In the casino, it's the blackjack or poker table, or any other gaming board.
This similarity is no coincidence, and in fact only scratches the surface of the timeless connection between religion and gambling. Most archeological and anthropological evidence actually points to the two having been the same thing at one stage.
This can be seen through Hindu and Icelandic mythology, which foretell of the gods destroying and recreating the world on a dice board.
But even if some people have a hard time believing that religion and gambling were once the same thing, they still can't deny that there is an eerie bond between the two.
You see, game diagrams were found to have been chiseled into the roofing tiles of temples in ancient Thebes, winnowed into the cloister seats of medieval English churches, and carved into the survey markers of the pyramid city of Teotihuacán.
Many scientists believe that this is because playing boards are themselves sacred. Johan Huizinga, author of Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Elements in Culture, said that "The turf, the tennis court, the chessboard, and the pavement hopscotch cannot formally be distinguished from the temple or the magic circle."
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