Never has a game been so simple to play yet so complex to predict as the game of roulette. Roulette has fascinated many players around the globe to risk their entire fortunes on the simple turn of a wheel and a ball. Roulette has had the power to intrigue professionals and amateurs alike for ages and has made quite an impact on the pop culture of the world. In fact, who does not think of Russian roulette as the most dangerous game of fate? However, the history of this wonderful game is not as mysterious and intriguing as its way of working around the players.
Unlike other gambling games, roulette was invented by a scientist. Around the year 1655, the scientist Blaise Pascal created a game which would stay in perpetual motion. The name for it was taken from the French term meaning ‘small wheel’. This was the beginning of roulette. The history of roulette presents it as simply an entertainer in monasteries in its earliest years. Soon after, it moved on to the casino scene in France and became a rather popular game for the elite class of the gamblers. The history of roulette has glamour, fashion and intelligence attached to it since the day it became a gambler’s choice of game.
This game came to the USA during the 1800’s, much like all the other gambling games making their way from France. Facing no prohibition or bans for a long time, it became an instant hit with gamblers. People who played the game purely to test their luck and intuition soon formed a large part of the crowd that visited casinos. Even though the house maintains a steady advantage when you play roulette, this does not discourage gamblers from trying to match their wits against this little wheel of luck. A number of gambling dens sprang up in USA that played only roulette, which added to the exclusive and glamorous feel of the game as well. The history of blackjack has given us two variants of the game. One is the original, known as European roulette, where there is only a single zero slot. The other is the American variant of roulette where there is an extra slot for 00. This was added by the American casinos to add further advantage to the house.
The history of roulette has given us certain modern myths and legends to add to its colourful nature. It was said that a man named Francois Blanc supposedly made a deal with the devil, to obtain the secrets of the roulette table. This has become a very popular legend and is based on the fact that if you add the numbers on the roulette wheel, i.e. 1 to 36, the total comes out to be 666 or the number of the devil. Good fortune has always been associated with the history of roulette and this mystery has long attracted many fortune seekers to try and win the game of roulette against all odds.
This article was written by Ridhi Rajpal.