The History of Playing Cards

Card games have been around in one form or another since ancient times. How similar are the playing cards we use and the games we play today to the way cards and card games started out?

Modern Playing Cards

Today, in 2025, the most well-known deck of playing cards is the classic Western 52-card deck. The cards are rectangular in shape with slightly rounded corners to avoid tearing or bending from excessive use. Since the second half of the 20th century, it has become common to add a light plastic coating to the cardboard cards to ensure that they stay new-looking and useful for as long as possible. A deck like this will be divided into four suits- hearts, clubs, spades and diamonds. Each suite has cards numbered 2 to 10, a king, queen, jack and ace.

The Origin of Playing Cards

People have been playing card games for a very, very long time now. We’re not talking a couple of hundred years, we are talking thousands here! The earliest instance of playing cards of any kind, which were likely slightly more similar to modern-day dominoes than modern-day playing cards, comes from 10th-century China. Unfortunately, as with many things in history so long ago, we don’t have any recording of the markings on the cards or how games were played using said cards, but we do know that they existed.

The Spread and Popularisation of Playing Cards

Eventually, the concept of playing cards spread from Asia to Europe. By around 1370, cards began to appear in Spain and Italy, likely thanks to merchants on trading routes from the East to the West. The very first playing cards used in Europe were hand-painted, as mass printing was not available. The fact that each deck was hand-painted made playing cards a luxury item really only available to the super-wealthy elite.

King Charles VI of France is said to have once paid 56 sols parisiens to Jacquemin Gringonneur for painting a custom, kingly deck of cards for him “pour le divertissement du roy”, which translates to “for the amusement of the king”. Since whatever pastime the king had quickly became de rigueur, it was no surprise that the wealthy and the aristocracy of France soon took to playing cards as their favourite form of entertainment. The game slowly began to spread as they were taken inland along the trade routes, and by the 15th century, all of France was playing card games.

Thanks to the German invention of block printing at the start of the 15th century, playing cards would soon become an option for people of many different castes and wealth levels as the cost of card production continued to reduce. Painting cards through stencils served the same end: a practice that became popular in frame in the 1480s and brought us the decks that would go on to dictate how card game suits would be fashioned for hundreds of years to come. The stencils included pique, coeur, carreau, trèfle, which are referred to in English as pades, hearts, diamonds and clubs.

Technological Advancements

As time moved on and many processes continued to reduce in cost as technologies advanced, the cost of crafting playing cards continued to drop, which radically expanded the social appeal of card games. Card games lent themselves well to being demure, being refined and relaxing with a game and a group of friends instead of engaging in sweaty, intense outdoor pursuits. Cards also allowed players the advantage of adapting games to include however many players were necessary- all that had been available before was a selection of board games like chess that were suited only for two players or multiplayer dice games that were all about gambling.

Those who felt that these dice games were below their level of intellect and that the incredible strategic games like chess might be stressful or a little too complicated, card games were a happy in-between. All of this made card games an ideal form of entertainment for the women of the day who were not encouraged to engage in physical activities beyond what was necessary or roughhouse fun entertainment.

Card Games, Gambling and the Authorities

Cards could have been played for fun or money, but to begin with, they were mostly played for money. When civic authorities realised that this was the case, they decided it was time to get in on the action and begin some kind of regulatory procedure for gambling card games. This began in 17th-century France when King Louis XIV’s minister of finance, Cardinal Mazarin, brought a whole new source of income for the crown by essentially turning Versailles into a casino. In some countries, cards became banned unless they were the state-created deck, and some places imposed penalties as severe as death upon any convicted forgers.

In the 20th century, despite what one might think, playing card manufacturing remained an incredibly specialised and very competitive market. Many smaller suppliers were forced out of business or absorbed by larger companies. Now, in the 21st century, it is impossible to say how many card companies there are out there, but the main ones are United States Playing Card Company (USPCC) (USA), Cartamundi (Belgium), and Legends Playing Cards (Asia) which collectively produce tens of millions of decks annually. Most modern casinos use a 52-card deck, and Bee Brand playing cards are the preferred deck among casinos worldwide. Thanks to their soft finish, the lack of borders, and high-quality stock, they have become an ideal deck for disguising any second deals, false shuffles or other casino funny business.

Then and Now

Though playing cards and card games have changed a lot since the 15th century, it’s safe to say that cards and card games are still going to be around for a long time to come.