Roulette is one of the oldest and most popular gambling games in the world. And with more and more people choosing to play their favorite casino game online, it has been thrown into a whole new level of popularity.
But the online roulette we know today didn't just fall out of the sky. No, there is a whole history behind it.
One thing is certain: we don't know for sure who designed today's roulette.
Actually, we don't know exactly when roulette came into being. The history of roulette is difficult to trace because there is very little in books about it. For example, there is a rumor that roulette was actually invented in China and brought to Europe by traders.
Did Blaise Pascal invent roulette?
It is generally believed the story of Blaise Pascal who, during a six-month retreat in a French monastery, designed a device which was the starting point for today's roulette wheel.
Blaise Pascal was looking for an invention to create perpetual motion. He designed a large device in the shape of a large wheel for his experiment. Through friends, the idea was born to use the device for gambling. After several modifications, the precursor to the roulette wheel we know today was created.
Roulette in the form we know today was first spotted in Paris around 1796. At the time, it was a game played only by the wealthy elite. At that time there was only a roulette wheel with the: 00 and 0 through 36. This form of roulette is now called American roulette.
It wasn't until 1843, in a German spa casino, that the single 0 roulette wheel was introduced by the Frenchmen: Francois and Louis Blanc. They came up with this to compete against all the other casinos that had the traditional wheel with the single 0 and double 0. Today, this variant is called European Roulette. That's because this form is the most common and THE most common roulette variant in Europe.
The roulette legend
It is said that Francois Blanc, the “inventor” of the roulette wheel with one zero, sold his soul to the devil for the secret of roulette. This legend is reinforced by adding all the roulette numbers together: a total of 666. This number is often linked to the devil.
