Faro is an old, old card game that few have heard of, and even fewer play. Faro was introduced to America by John Law in 1717, and believe it or not, it was the most popular game in America for 100 years. The last casino to have a real, functioning faro table was the Reno Ramada, and they finally snuffed it in 1985. Now faro is played only by the Old West historical reenactment crowd, and only for exhibition, never for real money. Faro is history.

But, thanks to me, history is about to change.

About a year ago, I designed the world’s first and only online faro game, Wichita Faro. It got some good reviews and won some awards, and eventually I licensed it to TNT, to use on their Into The West website.

Last night, I got a phone call from Ronnie Lawson of the Bordertown casino. Owned by the Eastern Shawnee tribe, Bordertown is located near the Missouri border on U.S. Highway 60. Because of a new state law (which I endorsed), Bordertown was allowed to add card games to its offerings this year. Mr. Lawson was calling me to tell me that Bordertown will soon become the only casino in the country to operate a faro table! He got the idea, he said, from playing Wichita Faro!

Faro is an ideal game for players. It’s easy to learn; there’s no strategy to it, it’s pure luck, like roulette. And the house “edge” in faro is the lowest of any casino game (which is the main reason casinos stopped offering it). If faro regains its former popularity, the history books will have to include my name alongside John Law’s.

(For more info about faro, see “Bucking the Tiger” by Mark Howard.)