Roulette History

The very first kind of roulette came out in France in the 18th century. Blaise Pascal actually introduced a more primitive version a century before that while searching for a machine of perpetual motion, but overall, roulette is seen as a mixture of wheel games from England, board games from Italy and a French name.

This game has existed since 1796 and was first mentioned in a French book called La Roulette, where a wheel is described in Paris's Palais Royal. The description also included house pockets and numbered layouts. Even earlier, several game references were published in the rules of New France, which banned roulette games, among others.

In the year 1843, two more Frenchmen, Louis and Francois Blanc introduced roulette wheels with one zero in a German casino town called Homburg. They did this to compete with casinos that provided the classic double-zero wheels.

The Changes

In several early forms of American wheels of roulette, the numbers on the wheel went from 1 to 28 and included a 0, a 00, and an Eagle. The American Eagle had its own slot and served to be a sign of American freedom. It was also considered as a casino slot, which gave the casino an extra edge. This tradition soon vanished, however, and the wheel only features numbered slots now.

By the 19th century, roulette had spread around America and Europe, becoming a highly popular and famous casino game. After gambling was abolished by the German federal government in 1860, one family moved closer to the only legal casino operating in Europe, Monte Carlo. There, the Blancas established a mecca of gambling for Europe's elite class.

Here, the roulette wheel with a single zero became the main attraction and through the years, it got exported worldwide, except in America, where they still stay true to the double-zero wheels. Some people call this game "The King" because it is linked to Monte Carlo casino glamour, more than anything.

One legend claims that François Blanc made a bargain with Satan to get the true secrets of the game. This legend started because the whole sum of every number on the wheel of roulette is actually 666, Satan's number.