Roulette in French stands for ‘little wheel’ and today it is believed that this casino game was invented in France during the 17th century. Though no one can be too sure when it comes to roulette history there are few certain facts that help us to sketch a rather accurately the roulette history.
Blaise Pascal, the notorious French mathematician, is believed to the one who invented the roulette wheel during the 17th century. Pascal was fascinated by perpetual motion devices and it can be assumed that the roulette wheel was formed as a by-product of his love to these devices.
The game had huge success in the south of France and little could people resist to the great entertainment that the roulette wheel presented for gamblers.
In 1842 Frenchmen Francois and Louis Blanc had made another step in roulette history – they invented the ‘0’ pocket in the wheel with the aim of increasing the house edge of roulette bets.
But since gambling were then forbidden in France the game was introduced in Hamburg, Germany, where the two could operate roulette games without fearing of the law.
But sometime later on Francois and his son Camille went to South of France. There they introduced their roulette games to the Charles III, the Prince of Monaco, who was known for his affection for gambling games.
There is a myth which tells that Blanc signed with the devil for the secrets of the roulette hence his huge success with roulette games. This myth is based upon the fact that by adding up all the numbers on the roulette wheel the result is 666, which is referred to as “the beast’s number”.
The Blancs’ roulette game hit the hot iron and they planted the seeds of what will later become today’s Monte Carlo. Roulette games with a single zero were exclusively played in Monte Carlo until 1933. But that’s not all for the roulette history.
In the 1800’s roulette arrived to the US where it had also gained huge success. American casinos were not very pleased with the European roulette, since the house edge of it was pretty low, and so they introduced a new version of roulette where there are two zero pockets, and not just one. The American roulette’s higher house edge brought casinos billions of dollars ever since.
