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.