The history of roulette

f you were to mention the word ‘casino’ to any stranger, it is highly likely that one of the first images that would be conjured into their mind would be the iconic black and red roulette wheel.

Roulette is one of the most successful and enduring casino games in the world; it has an amazingly rich and colourful history and is a classic that is still a heavily featured staple at casinos all over the world to this very day.

Bizarrely enough, the first ever roulette wheel was born out of a desire to create a perpetual motion machine; it was devised by a famous French mathematician named Blaise Pascal. Although Pascal failed in defying the laws of thermodynamics, he did succeed in creating something that would see his name endure long after his death. Despite a general consensus about roulette’s inventor, there is still some contention about who actually brought about what we currently know as the game of roulette.

It is widely accepted that the first ‘modern’ roulette wheel (i.e. a wheel with an even and odd/alternating red and black colour structure) was first seen in the city of Paris just before the turn of the 19th Century. The game of roulette and its iconic wheel then made its premier trip across the Atlantic ocean sometime at the beginning of the 1800s, where it underwent some subtle changes… It seems that the first casinos in the United States to introduce roulette were not altogether pleased with the low ‘house edge’ which the game offered them; to overcome this, they introduced an extra pocket (with the number ’0′). This raised the house edge in the casino’s favour and remains the key difference between American and European roulette to this very day.

As a result of this, whether playing online roulette or the traditional land-based version, savvy players should always be on the lookout for the European version of the game in order to stand the best chance of success!