The History of Roulette

Roulette is said by some to have been started or invented way back in 1655 by the French scientist Blaise Pascal, during his monastic retreat, and first played in a makeshift casino in Paris. Other historians claim however that a French monk invented it in order to help break some of the monotony of daily monastery life. Still others say it originated in an old Chinese game whose object was to arrange 37 statuettes of animals in a "magic square" of 666 (but they fail to describe the method of play). They add that the game was later played in Tibet, and eventually by French Dominican monks. One of these monks is said to have transposed the statuettes into numbers from 0 to 36, and arranged them haphazardly along the rim of a revolving wheel. Since the early French roulette wheels of the 1800s had both the 0 and 00, this theory does not sound plausible.

The history of roulette thus remains a bit shrouded in mystery. Claims and counter-claims over the years have not helped to solve many of the riddles and missing links surrounding the game, and undoubtedly, the true origin of the game will remain a mystery forever.

The modern version of the Roulette wheel did not appear until around 1842 when Frenchmen Francois and Louis Blanc are said to have invented the single "0" roulette game. Eventually, the game was brought to America. However, the single "0" modification was rejected in the United States and roulette history was altered forever with American roulette wheels being made standard with the two zeros "00".

Although both the double zero and single zero wheels originated in France, the double zero became known as the "American Wheel," because it was accepted with open arms and survived in the states. The popularity of the single zero wheel had supplanted the double zero wheels in Europe and consequently was dubbed the "French Wheel." Roulette is the oldest casino game still in existence today.