Do you enjoy a good casino? How about sandwiches? How about both, together?
Lord John Montagu, the Fourth Earl Sandwich (1718-1792) was an avid gambler. As the story goes, Lord Sandwich was so into his gambling marathons, he wouldn’t take a break even for a short meal. Consequently, he would ask his servants to bring him slices of meat between two slices of bread. Soon after his gambling buddies began to order “the same as Sandwich!”, and thus the “sandwich” was born.
Bonus fact: Gambling games goes way back in almost every ancient culture. In ancient Rome, after losing all their money, some gambled their freedom and became slaves.
The Huns went even further: St. Ambrose tells that after having betting with what they most appreciated – namely weapons – the next step was to gamble on their very lives.
Maybe worse, is a record about a Venetian that gambled his wife and a Chinese who gambled his wife and children.
In Moscow and St. Petersburg, not only money and furniture have been used for collateral for bets, but also entire mansions and the staff keeping them. Hence, entire staff-families passed successively to several masters in a single day.