History of Roulette

The casino game of Roulette derives its name from the French expression meaning “little wheel”. It is believed to have been devised in the 18th century by famous mathematician Blaise Pascal and to be derived from a combination of English, French and Italian board and wheel games.

Roulette in its present form has been played in Paris from as early as 1796 even at the prestigious Palais Royal. In the 1790’s the roulette wheels used by casinos in Paris had red for the single zero and black for the double zero. By the year 1800 and onwards the color was switched to green for all zeros in roulette wheels. In 1843, François and Louis Blanc, two Frenchmen, introduced the single 0 style roulette wheel to the German spa casino town of Homburg. They did it in order to be more competitive as compared to other casinos which were offering the standard wheel with the single and double zero house pockets.

The legend goes to say that François Blanc actually made a deal with the devil in order to obtain the secrets of roulette. This legend originated from the fact that the sum of all numbers on the roulette wheel from 1 to 36 actually total 666 which is the ‘Number of the Beast’.

The early version of American Roulette wheels were numbered from 1 to 28 with additional pockets for the single zero, double zero and an American eagle. This last one was also a house slot which brought extra advantage to the casino. This particular version was soon cast abandoned however and only wheels which numbered slots remained.

The 19th century saw the expansion of roulette with this game scattering all over territories including Europe and the USA. Roulette soon became one of the most prominent and popular of casino games. The cream of the crop congregated in Monte Carlo to casinos established by the Blanca family to play roulette which was dubbed “King of Casino Games”. The single zero roulette further increased in popularity and spread all over the world except for the United States where the reigning version remained the double zero roulette.

Freshly disembarked in the USA the French double zero roulette wheel steadily made its way throughout the continent. Changes were soon brought to the table and wheel due to blatant cheating on the part of both operators and gamblers. One of these changes was to place the wheel on top of the table to avoid any possible manipulations. This was the birth of American style roulette which even nowadays is more popular around the world than the traditional French Roulette version of  the game. Roulette is a popular game due to the variation and amount of bets that can be placed on a single spin of the wheel. Roulette remains a very popular game at both Land Based Casinos and Online Casino rooms.