The game of Canasta was devised by Segundo Santos and Alberto Serrato in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1939. In the 1940s the game quickly spread in myriad variations to Chile, Peru, Brazil and Argentina, where its rules were further refined before being introduced to the United States in 1949 by Josefina Artayeta de Viel (New York), where it was then referred to as the "Argentine Rummy" game by Ottilie H. Reilly in 1949 and Michael Scully of "Coronet" magazine in 1953. In 1949/51 the New York "Regency Club" wrote the Official Canasta Laws, which were published together with game experts from South America by the "National Canasta Laws Commissions" of the USA and Argentina.