Scottish expatriate John Law (1671 to 1729) introduced an early version of the game in the Americas around 1717 in what was to become the city of New Orleans. The word “faro” came from the court of King Louis XIV, where one of the cards in a standard playing deck bore the face of an Egyptian pharaoh. Although both faro and basset were forbidden in France, these games remained popular in England during the 18 th century because they were easy to learn and, when played honestly, the odds for a player were the best of all gambling games. King Louis the XIV outlawed basset in 1691. Louis and countless places in between, the faro table was a familiar sight and sound to virtually all persons who hung out in saloons.įaro originated in France around 1713 as a revised form of the popular British pub game, basset. On the frontier, from Deadwood to Tijuana, from Reno to Langtry, from New Orleans to St.
Today, the card game known as faro is all but forgotten, but when America was young � before windsurfing, Packard automobiles, computers, Hoover Dam, the Scopes “monkey” trial, Route 66 or wind farms in the desert had ever been mentioned � faro was the most popular card game in the country. Playing Faro in an Arizona Saloon in 1895.
