The History of Roulette– The Lure and Lore of Roulette

It is believed that roulette was invented by 17th century French mathematician, Blaise Pascal while he was experimenting with creating a perpetual motion machine. Fortunately for roulette players across the globe, his invention “failed” and was soon turned into what is now considered to one of the most popular casino games in the history of the world.

Why Roulette?

While the game is relatively simple to learn and play, it’s also the mystic and magic of the roulette wheel that makes it so well-loved.

Many players are crazy about pitting their skills one-on-one in poker, and still others love the mathematical precision of blackjack, but only roulette brings to mind, sophisticated players dressed in stylish wardrobes laying down the big chips while drinking dry martinis, shaken not stirred. Only roulette has such a sophisticated and elegant environment, but this wasn’t always the case.

Online roulette has spread this exciting game even further. Along with the software the online casino provides, you can also download and use “roulette systems” applications like Routrack.

Pascal’s Roulette

Pascal designed the roulette wheel to be a random number generator and so didn’t include a zero on the number ring. He believed that if it was perfectly balanced the roulette (which means “little wheel” in French) would spin unburdened and the ball would never land on the numbers enough times to create a pattern.

Yet as we all know nothing is perfect and eventually a pattern did begin to appear. This made the roulette useless for Pascal but it quickly made his “small wheel” a favorite among gamblers and the nobility. The fun came in trying to predict where the ball would land or discover a wheel’s particular pattern.

But it wasn’t until almost two hundred years later, in 1842 that brothers, Louis and Francois Blanc redesigned the wheel and added a single “0” which increased the house’s edge to 2.70%. The numbering sequence became:

“0-32-15-19-4-21-2-25-17-34-6-27-13-36-11-30-8-23-10-5-24-16-33-1-20-14-31-9-22-18-29-7-28-12-35-3-26”.

Because roulette was so addictive to play and yet so hard to beat, many accused Louis and Francois Blanc of making a deal with the devil, especially since the numbers on the new wheel added up “666”, the mark of the beast. Whether the “devil made them do it” or not, when roulette was banned in France, the brothers traveled to Germany setting up a shop in gambling halls in Hamburg.

Later after being banned there too, Prince Charles III of Monaco invited Louis Blanc and his son Camille to open a casino in Monte Carlo. Camille was the manager of the casino for over 40 years and made European roulette the “King of the Casino”. It is still is the most popular table game at the casino today.

But during the 1840’s, when many French immigrants who took refuge in New Orleans, then roulette was introduced to the United States. Soon it became a top table game on riverboats and gambling halls up and down the Mississippi.

Because beat and cheat roulette was rampant by both players and house staff alike, changes were made to simplify the betting layout and a double zero (00) was added to increase the house’s edge to 5.26%. American roulette also has a different numbering system.

The American numbers are arranged in an attempt to alternate odd and even numbers, high, low digits along with the red and black colors. And in this version the green “0” and “00” slots are placed on opposite sides of each other with exactly 18 numbers between them.

At first glance, roulette seems complex and difficult but is actually easy to learn and play. This once “failed” science experiment is still “King of the Casino”.