Various mid-fourteenth-century European writers show an interest in games, but no writer of this period mentions the playing of cards  Nor do any of the mid-fourteenth-century statutes that proscribe or limit the play of games mention cards, though they do mention dice, chess, and other games
It is ttherefore likely that, contrary to what is sometimes claimed, at that time playing cards was not yet common in Europe
Neither today's newspapers nor this evening's television news mentioned a huge fire that was rumored to have happened in the port last night. Ttherefore, there probably was no such fire.