Roulette Wheel: The History

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Lina Almans

18 May 2023

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History of Roulette

Roulette wheel is a classic casino game where you have to guess which slot the ball will land on. It’s super easy to play, and there’s a good chance you might win. But did you know the history behind this game has a bunch of mysteries? Let us break it down for you.

Where Did Roulette Come From?

Some say the Ancient Romans had a similar game with a round disc and a stick. They used it to predict the future. Meanwhile, in North America, the Indigenous tribes had their own version with a spinning wheel. They used it for divination too.

Nobody really knows who created the game. But these are the most common theories out there.

Wheel of Fortune from a 12th-century manuscript
Wheel of Fortune from a 12th-century manuscript

Chinese Roulette

Believe it or not, roulette might’ve come from ancient China.

Tibetan monks came up with a game that had a round board with 666 squares and 37 animal figurines on the edge.

The theory of the appearance of roulette in ancient China

Then, Dominican monks adopted the game, replaced the animals with numbers, and turned it into a prototype of the modern roulette wheel.

French Roulette

History of roulette, France, 18th century
The game of roulette, circa 18th-century, Paris

Back in the 17th century, the French were already gambling in casinos with a game called Hoca.

Hoca had a circle with 40 holes. Each one had a number. Three of them had a big fat zero.

In the middle of the circle, there was a handle to spin the wheel. Players would bet on which hole the little ball would land in. If it landed on one of the three zeros, the house would take all the cash.

Pascal’s Invention

You ever heard of Blaise Pascal? He was a French math genius who supposedly created roulette. Here are the two main theories of how he did it:

THEORYSUMMARY
Pascal’s perpetual motion machinePascal was trying to make a machine that would never stop moving in 1655. He used a wheel with a ball rolling around it during his experiments. Although he couldn’t make the machine work, he came up with the main feature of roulette — the wheel.
Pascal’s monastery inventionAnother theory is that when Pascal was 32 years old, he went to live in a monastery near Paris. To keep himself occupied, he invented roulette.

Roulette Wheel Today

The modern era of roulette has taken over the world of gambling. Nowadays, it comes in three main versions:

European

This one has a single zero. Giving the casino a 2.7% advantage.

French

There’s only one zero here too, and there are special rules that let you get some of your bet back if the ball lands in that pocket.

American

This one’s got two zeros, giving the casino a 5.26% advantage.

Differences between European, French and American roulette

There’s also a version called Boule that doesn’t have a zero pocket, but it’s not very popular.

The latest development in the world of gambling is online roulette.

You can find it in lots of online casinos, usually in the section with card and table games. It’s super convenient to play from home, and it’s all based on a random number generator.

Interesting Fact

In 1843, the classic game got an upgrade. The Blanc twin brothers, François and Louis, a roulette with a single zero that gave players an edge. Their invention, and the casinos that adopted it, quickly became popular because gamblers had a better chance of winning. On the other hand, other gambling establishments quickly went bankrupt.