In 1981, Pontoon was the third most popular card game in Britain after Rummy and Whist. It is a popular family game, but also widely played by children, students, and members of the armed forces. The game has no official rules and varies widely from place to place. In Britain, it first became known as Pontoon during the First World War, the name apparently being a soldier's corruption of its former French name. Both are descended from the early British version of Vingt-Un. It is neither a variant of nor derived from Blackjack.
Pontoon, formerly called Vingt-Un, is a card game of the banking family for three to ten players and the 'British domestic version of Twenty-One,' a game first recorded in 17th-century Spain, but which spread to France, Germany and Britain in the late 18th century, and America during the early 19th century.
