In order to properly understand the evolution of rummikub we need to see how everything started. The history of rummikub basically started in the 1940s when a Romanian toothbrush maker, Ephraim Hertzano, and his wife Hanna came up with the nowadays highly popular game. The reason why it appeared was the fact that card games were illegal in the country. This meant that nobody could play family card games. Ephraim’s idea was to simply replace cards with cubes of different colors and use regular rummy rules to create a new game that will be really popular all around the world.

Ephraim worked hard every day and had several jobs, including a connection with a manufacturing shop that was using recycling of Perspex cockpit canopies in order to create toothbrushes. Due to the fact that he could not create rummikub sets by using wood or plastic as his budget would not allow it, the recycled material appeared as a great solution. Now he had the playing set and created rules that were very similar to card games so that people would learn really fast.

As soon as the rummy tile was created Ephraim made the right move and actually started the history of Rummikub popularity by inviting friends to play an alternative to card games. As expected, the demand for the game started to grow quickly and different store owners started to want to sell the game. Time passed and the rummikub set was improved together with a refining of game rules. The name was also established as Rummikub around that time.

Ephraim eventually moved to Israel but did not give up on his rummikub dream. Every single Saturday night people were invited at his home in order for a game night. People started to share the tradition and the demand for playing sets constantly grew. This led to the expansion of the initially small workshop. Nowadays that small shop is a huge enterprise.

The worldwide recognition for the popularity of Rummikub was achieved in the year 1977 when it gained the title of “Game of the Year”. Statistics that have been released tell us that we are in front of one of the best selling games in the world and there are over thirty million games that have been sold. The dream did become reality.

The only part of the history of Rummikub that Ephraim did not get involved in is what we are seeing today. Thanks to the Internet and the popularity that online gaming has, rummikub has reached the virtual world. This means that even more players have began learning and enjoying the game. Also the technology that is used is completely safe and this made it possible for rummikub games to also be played for money. We are sure that not even Ephraim could have realized the huge popularity that rummikub variations enjoy today.

If you still did not play online rummikub or offline we recommend that you learn the game rules and give it a try. We are sure that you will be hooked like the millions that are playing this game on at least a monthly basis.