September 29th, 2008 by admin

Roulette is a French word meaning ‘small wheel’. Blaise Pascal, the famous mathematician, invented it while he was studying for a perpetual device motion in the 17th century.  This original device was used for almost the next 200 years without any changes. Then in 1842, two Frenchmen by the name of Francois and Louis Blanc added a single 0 to the roulette wheel. There is also a story where it was believed that these Frenchmen had some deal with a devil as the numbers 1 to 36, when added, gave a total of 666 which is a devil’s number. After gambling was banned from some parts, François moved to Monte Carlo and opened a casino there and introduced his version of roulette there. The zero was added to the wheel to increase the house odds. In the 19th century, the roulette wheel reached the shores of USA and became very popular there. Here the double 00 was added thus taking the numbers to 38 in the American wheel. Earlier, American roulette wheels had an Eagle in place of 00. The zeros gave an added advantage to the casinos (house).