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Faro, one of the oldest gambling games played with cards, supposedly named from the picture of a pharaoh on certain French playing cards. A favourite of highborn gamblers throughout Europe well into the 19th century, faro was the game at which the young Count Rostov, in Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, lost a fortune.Faro was introduced to the United States in New Orleans. Also worth mentioning are the Faro Playing Cards from the Parnell Playing Card Company, which specializes in authentic faro playing cards and games from the Wild West. Besides selling felt faro layouts (which come with game rules), they also make available a faro deck, each packaged with a picture of a legend like Wyatt Earp.

THERE HASN’T BEEN A FARO TABLE IN WICHITA FOR NEARLY 100 YEARS...

...UNTIL TODAY. WELCOME TO WICHITA FARO. (CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO PLAY NOW!)

Today, faro is all but forgotten, but when America was young, very young — before baseball, hot dogs, or Coca-Cola was even invented — faro was the most played game in the country. On the western frontier, the faro table was a familiar sight — and sound — to every saloon patron.

Fun, history, art

Wichita Faro is the first and only free online faro game on the Web. But it is more than that. It is a piece of American history, and a work of art. In designing the game, every effort was made to recapture the authentic excitement and atmosphere of the game as it was played in that bygone era.

Faro (sometimes spelled Pharo) is a card-based banking gambling game that was extremely popular during the 19th century America. The basic idea of the game was that the punter player would bet against the dealer on a 13 card layout by backing a card to win. It was the favorite gambling game of most walks of life; from professional sharps to miners, soldiers and prisoners, country-folk. See full list on casinousa.com. Faro is a historical casino game for two or more players. It requires a standard 52 card deck, an extra set of 13 cards for each rank, a set of betting chips for each player, and a penny for each player. In Faro, Aces are low and Kings are high. The objective is to win the most bets.

The visual design of Wichita Faro owes more to the real world of oak, brass, paper and ink than to the videogame world of rectangles and pixels. And the sound effects usually associated with computer games — beeps and chimes and such — are nowhere to be found; in their place are the real noises of a faro game in a busy saloon.

How To Play Fargo

So, if you’re ready to explore this small corner of a lost world (and if you’ve got Flash Player 8 or higher), we offer you Wichita Faro. Good luck, friend. (Click here to play Wichita Faro.)

Faro Card Game App

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