History of Roulette

Casino Edge's guide to roulette's unique place in history.

The roulette wheel was originally invented in the eighteenth century by the mathematician Blaise Pascal while trying to create a machine that would rotate indefinitely. The device he created (which doesn't rotate indefinitely) was developed into a game shortly thereafter. The history of roulette is shady, to say the least, but most agree that the game was made famous by Prince Charles of Monaco, who introduced the game to a welcoming aristocracy.

The earliest record of a game called roulette being played dates back to the mid-eighteenth century, where it was written in the regulations for Quebec that roulette was banned (also including dice, faro and hoca). The French novel 'La Roulette, ou le Jour' published on 1801 describes a double-zero American style roulette wheel.

The single zero European style wheel was first introduced in a German town called Homburg (not to be confused with Hamburg) in the mid-nineteenth century by two French brothers, Francois and Louis Blanc, who set up there to avoid France's roulette ban. With much better odds than the original double zero wheel, the game quickly grew in popularity and soon spread all over the developed world. Louis Blanc was later invited back to France by Prince Charles of Monaco to help with the opening of what would later become known as the first modern-day casino.

Roulette was first introduced to the US via New Orleans. It quickly became very popular as it spread throughout the country. The table was simplified to make the game appealing to people new to gambling and shaped the way for the current layout seen on roulette tables to day.

Unfortunately, the single zero roulette wheel never took off in the US land-based casinos. Most of them still play on double zero wheels; however, this restriction does not translate to the Internet, with European roulette being readily available to people playing online in the US.