Did Pirates Gamble?

[News Crew]

This article as originally part of an offer for advertisement on PA!, the deal didn't go through however I would like to put it here just to give "I didn't know that" moment People have gambled since the dawn of time. Humans have always been fascinated by random outcomes, and before cards or dice were invented, people rolled stones, sea shells, nut shells, bones, well, basically anything that randomizes a result. Today, everybody is into poker games (http://www.pokerlistings.com/poker-games) and most gamblers play holdem (http://www.pokerlistings.com/texas-holdem) online. But this is nothing new. Pirates also fancied card games and the most popular games were Marias and Talonmarias. They were both played with a 32-card deck (the William Tell deck) and had the suits Bells, Hearts, Leaves and Acorns.

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[morgan terror]

i don't think gambling was allowed on board though. it was done to prevent fights on board. maybe they invented them, but only ashore. of course, i can imagine those guys secretly playing a game of cards on board anyway.

 

[Lazarus]

<b><!--sizeo:3--><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->The Pirate Code of Conduct<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>

<b>An example of the Pirate Code of Conduct dealt with the following subjects:</b>

Pirate Code of Conduct 1 - Equal Voting Rights

Pirate Code of Conduct 2 - Fair share of the loot and pirates punishments for those who cheated

<b>Pirate Code of Conduct 3 - Gambling was banned</b>

Pirate Code of Conduct 4 - No lights at night - a pirates sleep should not be disturbed

Pirate Code of Conduct 5 - Each pirate was responsible for the upkeep of their weapons

Pirate Code of Conduct 6 - No Boys or women allowed on board

Pirate Code of Conduct 7 - Penalty for Desertion

Pirate Code of Conduct 8 - No fighting between pirates on board the ship

Pirate Code of Conduct 9 - A Pension according to the severity of wounds

Pirate Code of Conduct 10 - Shares of the loot or booty

Pirate Code of Conduct 11 - Musicians available to play when required!


Pirates were pirates tough as nails, and I be sure that the term "Rolling the Bones" was accredited to some pirate carving someone's bones into dice or somesuch...I would bet the farm.