The History of Casino Roulette

Think of a casino, and one thing that inevitably comes to mind is the roulette table. That table with the spinning wheel and the little ball is a staple of casinos the world over and has been since the 17th century. Here’s the history of the roulette table in a nutshell:

The Origin of Casino Roulette

Roulette is actually an outgrowth of the efforts of a French mathematician to create a perpetual motion machine (i.e. a machine that could stay moving forever). Blaise Pascal had tried the roulette wheel as a way of accomplishing his goal and though he failed at that effort, he gave birth to a lasting institution.

Interestingly however, the red and black pockets that we know so well from our trips to the casino are not actually found on any of Pascal’s designs. Instead, those innovations were added two hundred years later by two Frenchmen, Francois and Louis Blanc. They also were the first to add the green zero and the numbers on the pockets, 1-36.

A Pact with the Devil?

One more interesting fact about the roulette wheel is a legend which states that the Blanc brothers sold their souls to the Devil in order to learn the secrets of the roulette wheel. Some say that’s why the total of all the numbers on the wheel add to 666, or the mark of the beast according to the Bible. Either way, we owe them a debt of gratitude for contributing to this amazing casino game.

Roulette Goes Global

Roulette became a global phenomenon by the late 19th century, when a further innovation was added – the American Eagle slot. This was because the game became particularly popular in the United States at the various casinos and saloons in that country. That slot would become known as the “house slot” meaning that if the ball landed there, the house would win (today, it’s most often represented by the 0 and 00 slots).

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