Credit Where It’s Due: One of the World’s Best Card Games Was invented in Ohio

Ohio gives the world plenty of awful things. Heck, there's a whole list of them at the end of this article. But even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while.

Recently we held some card game tournaments in the office here in Kalamazoo, Michigan as we wind down and begin to celebrate the holidays.

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One of the games we played was Euchre, a Midwest staple when it comes to card games. Having only lived in Michigan for a bit over a year, it was fun learning a new card game, even if the game can seem incredibly complicated for a newcomer. But Euchre wasn't invented in Michigan, Ohio or even in the United States. There are conflicting ideas of where the game was truly invented, but it wasn't where it's played most in our homeland.

The other game we played was a classic that everyone in the world enjoys. It's a simple game with rules no one ever truly seems to agree on, though the goal is simple: play every card in your hand while screwing over your friends at every opportunity.

The game is UNO, which I learned while playing with my co-workers was invented in Reading, Ohio, just outside of Cincinnati.

Ironically, the game was invented after Merle Robbins had a disagreement with his son on the rules of another card game, Crazy Eights. In 1971, Robbins crafted the rules for his Southwest Ohio family's enjoyment before deciding to give the game a chance on the market. He saved $8,000 to create 5,000 decks of UNO to be sold at his barber shop and on the road. After seeing the success of his sales, he approached International Games Inc. and later Mattel, and the rest is history.

Robbins sold the rights to the game for $50,000 and royalties of 10 cents per copy sold. Today, the game and its many variations has sold over 151 million copies in over 80 countries worldwide.