It is recorded in card game compendia from at least 1810 to 1975. A simplified version played with 32 German-suited cards was known as Deutsches Pharao ('German Pharo') or Süßmilch (Sweet Milk). It was also widespread in the German states during the 19th century, where it was known as Pharao or Pharo. 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, D.C.

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 considered by some to be the best of all gambling games, as Gilly Williams records in a letter to George Selwyn in 1752. 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. Basset was outlawed in 1691, and Pharaoh emerged several years later as a derivative of Basset, before it too was outlawed.

The earliest references to a card game named Pharaon (French for 'Pharaoh') are found in Southwestern France during the reign of Louis XIV. Variants include German Faro, Jewish Faro, and Ladies' Faro. Popular in North America during the 1800s, Faro was eventually overtaken by poker as the preferred card game of gamblers in the early 1900s. The game of Faro is played with only one deck of cards and admits any number of players. It is not a direct relative of poker, but Faro was often just as popular due to its fast action, easy-to-learn rules, and better odds than most games of chance. Winning or losing occurs when cards turned up by the banker match those already exposed. It is descended from Basset, and belongs to the Lansquenet and Monte Bank family of games due to the use of a banker and several players. Men playing faro in an Arizona saloon in 1895įaro ( / ˈ f ɛər oʊ/ FAIR-oh), Pharaoh, Pharao, or Farobank is a late 17th-century French gambling game using cards.

Rules of what are the odds game