History of Roulette

It is not known exactly where the game of roulette originated. There was undoubtedly a version of the game played in ancient Rome a couple of thousand years ago. However, the modern game originated about 200 years ago in France. A French scientist called Blaise Pascal is attributed with inventing this early version of the game. This version contained the “0” and “00” and the numbers 1-36. The “0” and “00” being the means in which the casino could gain its’ advantage. It wasn’t until Louis Blanc invented the single zero version and installed the game in Hamburg in Germany that roulette begun to gain in popularity. This new version became so popular that nobody wanted to play the version used elsewhere so the double zero wheel slowly disappeared in Europe. This new version was eventually installed in the world famous casino in Monte Carlo and this set the standard that all future European casinos followed.

In the early 1800’s the game arrived in the United States and the casino operators were quick to install the double zero version of the wheel to increase the casinos advantage. Some operators decided to change to a triple zero wheel which only had numbers 1-26 and “0”, “00” and “000” giving the casino a whopping 12.9% advantage. Later in the 1800’s the double zero wheel became more popular as knowledgeable players refused to play on triple zero wheels and they were gradually phased out. Nowadays almost all US casinos use the double zero wheel but the single zero wheel is slowly making inroads. Today roulette is still not a very popular game in US casinos but in Europe it is still the main focus in most casinos.