Where did roulette come from?
The main clue to the origin of roulette is in the name; I literally means 'little wheel' in France and it was in this country that the game had its roots back in the 17th century.
It's come a long way and the advent of the web at the end of the last century has taken roulette on further than its founding fathers could ever have conceived. Today, roulette is one of the most popular online casino games – if not the most popular; played by hundreds of millions of people around the globe.
But the very first form was developed by French philosopher and scientist Blaise Pascal during the 17th century in his quest for a perpetual motion machine. The earliest traces of the game in pretty much its current form are found in late 18th century Paris. These tables had red for zero and black for a double zero, but green was later introduced for clarity's sake during the 1800s.
The single zero and diminished house edge was first introduced in the German spa town of Bad Homburg in 1843 by two French brothers Francois and Louis Blanc to give their casino a competitive edge.
Meanwhile, over the pond as roulette began to take off in American casinos, the early wheels included the zero, double zero and an American Eagle slot, giving the house even more of an edge. After a while, though, the additional slot disappeared – though the zero and double zero have remained ever since.
The 19th century really saw a burgeoning of roulette in Europe and the U.S.A. as wealthy people began to be more numerous - and to have more leisure time and greater mobility. So when Germany banned gambling during the 1860s, the afore-mentioned Blanc family upped sticks and relocated to the last legal remaining area for casinos in Europe at Monte Carlo. There. They established a real gambling mecca for Europe's hoi-polloi and Monte Carlo retains this status to the present day.
In the USA, the old French double zero version of the roulette wheel made its way gradually up the Mississippi from French New Orleans, and spread through the west. But due to cheating by both casino owners and by gamblers, the wheel came to be placed on top of the table. This stopped cheating devices being concealed in the table or on the wheel, and the gambling layout table was also simplified.
These innovations evolved into the North American roulette game which is distinct from the traditional French version – and it's the US variant that is now seen at almost all casinos around the Today, there are several hundred real casinos around the world, and many more online versions – all of which include roulette. In North and South America and the Caribbean, the double zero wheel still predominates – whilst in the rest of the world, the house has less of an edge thanks to the single zero.