The first BARGE was an informal gathering of a small number of participants of the rec.gambling newsgroup in Las Vegas in 1991 during SIGGRAPH, a computer graphics convention. The next year, many of the same players got together and had a poker tournament at The Mirage. The poker tournament was No Limit Hold'em (as it still is, while additional poker tournaments have been added), and nine players participated. Since then, BARGE has been held at various Las Vegas locations (see below for a list). Attendance has grown steadily, averaging about 200 participants.