The faro game was also called 'bucking the tiger' or 'twisting the tiger's tail', a reference to early card backs that featured a drawing of a Bengal tiger. An 1882 study considered faro to be the most popular form of gambling, surpassing all others forms combined in terms of money wagered each year. Faro could be played in over 150 places in Washington, DC alone during the Civil War. It was played in almost every gambling hall in the Old West from 1825 to 1915. With its name shortened to faro, it spread to the United States in the 19th century to become the most widespread and popularly favored gambling game. The game was easy to learn, quick and, when played honestly, the odds for a player were the best of all gambling games, as records Gilly Williams in a letter to George Selwyn in 1752. Basset was outlawed in 1691, and pharaoh emerged several years later as a derivative of basset, before it too was outlawed.ĭespite the French ban, pharaoh and basset continued to be widely played in England during the 18th century, where it was known as pharo, an English alternate spelling of Pharaoh. The earliest references to a card game named pharaon are found in Southwestern France during the reign of Louis XIV.
