Faro arose as a legal alternative, until it, too, was banned, although it spread to England and from there to the United States, where it continued to remain legal. Crooked dealing boxes and stacked decks were common in the days of Faro.įaro is closely related to Basset, a game played in France up to 1691, when it was banned. Unfortunately, that low rate of return for the house led many unscrupulous dealers to cheat. Faro’s popularity was because not only is it easy to learn, it has a very low house edge compared to other games like Blackjack. Faro is a gambling game which was hugely popular in the United States in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, especially in the Old West.
