Short answers, pulled from the story.
Princess Tongchang played the earliest known card game in the year 868 during the Tang dynasty. This activity was recorded in the Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang written by the Tang writer Su E. The game used paper sheets created through woodblock printing innovations of the era.
Playing cards first appeared in Europe in the last quarter of the 14th century arriving through maritime trade with the Mamluk rulers of Egypt. The earliest European mention of playing cards appears in 1371 in a Catalan language rhyme dictionary. An almost complete Mamluk Egyptian deck of 52 cards has survived from around the same time.
The first card game is described in a document about the exploits of two card sharps by 1408. The game itself remains unnamed in that document. The earliest game to be mentioned by name is Karnöffel first mentioned in 1426.
The French suits were introduced around 1480 and mostly replaced the earlier Latin suits of swords clubs cups and coins in France. The French suits became popular in English playing cards in the 16th century. They were subsequently introduced to British colonies including North America.
Collectible card games emerged as a distinct genre not recorded before 1970. The earliest example is Cuttle and the best known is Magic: The Gathering. Pokemon is another famous example of this genre.