Roulette History

Contrary to popular belief, the spinning wheel has been a wildly popular concept in gambling for many years. Indeed roulette is a French word, meaning small wheel. The Chinese used rotating wheels in their games of death; but on a more enjoyable level it was the Europeans who perfected the art of gambling. When one goes back in time, it becomes clear that the Greco-Roman era made use of spinning wheels/discs as gambling instruments. To illustrate this point, both these nations – the Greeks and Romans - made use of spinning objects with markings on them for the purposes of wagering. Typically an arrow would be pointing to a winning position on a shield (Greeks) or a carriage wheel (Romans) when it stopped spinning.

Roulette is born

It is widely assumed that the Frenchman Blaise Pascal, a mathematician by profession, invented the game of roulette in the year 1655. He was searching for a perpetual motion device. Pascal was responsible for several very important contributions to math, and many academics still regard him very highly. For example the universally popular Pascal's triangle remains in use to this very day. For climatologists, Pascal’s name is well-known, it is the symbol for atmospheric pressure. However there is a school of thought suggesting that monks played the game in their monasteries many years before this. Two very important contributors to the development of roulette were the English game of ‘Even and Odd’ and the Italian game of ‘Hoca.’ During the 17^th century it is acknowledged that the game of ‘Hoca’ was played at the behest of the royal court. This particular forerunner to roulette contained 40 cups on a round table including 3 house cups, hence its house odds of 7.5%.

American roulette is born

Finishing touches to Pascal’s roulette wheel were made by two notable Frenchmen – Louis and Francois Blanc. They added the number zero to the list of other numbers on the roulette wheel. This meant that there were now 37 numbers on the wheel – which effective increased the house edge against players and became the hallmark of what is today known simply as European roulette. Francois Blanc found a way of avoiding the outlawing of roulette in France and made his way to Monte Carlo where he popularized the game. The Americans were late in receiving this popular casino game. They went a step further however, and added a 00 to further increase the house edge.