Early roulette table, ca. 1800
The first form of roulette was devised in 17th century France, by the mathematician Blaise Pascal,
who was supposedly inspired by his fascination with perpetual motion devices. The game has been played
in its current form since
as early as 1796 in Paris. In 1842, fellow Frenchmen François and Louis Blanc
added the "0" to the roulette wheel in order to
achieve a house advantage. In the early 1800s, roulette was brought
into the U.S. where, to further increase house odds, a second
zero, "00", was introduced. (In some forms of early
American roulette the double-zero was replaced by an American Eagle.) In the
1800s, roulette spread all over both Europe
and the U.S., becoming one of the most famous and most popular casino games. Some
call roulette the "King of Casino Games",
probably because it was associated with the glamour of the casinos in Monte Carlo.
(François Blanc actually established the
first casinos there).
A legend tells about François Blanc, who supposedly bargained with the
devil to obtain the secrets of roulette.
The legend is based on the fact that if you add up all the numbers on the roulette wheel (from 1
to 36), the resulting
total is"666", which is the "Number of the Beast"