None of the descriptions of vingt-un in various old Hoyles mention anything about an "insurance" wager being allowed. This feature was added to the game of twenty-one much later in its history, most likely in the U.S. According to Steve Forte, the insurance wager was probably added in Nevada casinos sometime around the late 1950s. Photographs of casino blackjack tables from the 1950s do not show the familiar "Insurance Pays 2 to 1" signs on the layout, though photographs of tables from the 1960s usually do display this wording. I’ll also note that in the 1957 analysis of blackjack by Baldwin, Cantey, Maisel, and McDermott, in their groundbreaking Playing Blackjack to Win, they state that most Nevada casinos offer insurance, and mention two forms of insurance available-insuring against an ace-up blackjack for 2 to 1, and insuring against a ten-up blackjack for 10 to 1. That ten-up insurance option has long since disappeared from any Nevada casino that ever offered it. The similarity of the insurance option at blackjack to the insurance bet at trente-et-quarante is undeniable, and as trente-et-quarante is still popular in the casinos of both France and Italy, I suspect the addition of this rule to blackjack started with someone familiar with trente-et-quarante.
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