Roulette is not only the most popular, but also the oldest game of chance still played in the world. The word comes from the French and translates as ‘little wheel’. However, the game was invented by our southern neighbours. Roulette is as popular as Aviator will one day be. So be one of the first to check it out.
ITS EVOLUTION
The history of roulette goes back over 400 years.
The origin of roulette has not yet been clearly established. It is often said that the Frenchman Blaise Pascal invented this game during his research into probability theory. However, this is based on a misunderstanding. Pascal wrote his ‘Histoire de la roulette’ and ‘Suite de l’histoire de la roulette’ in 1658, but these writings are not about roulette as a game of chance, but about the cycloid, also known as roulette in France. This is a mathematical curve that describes a point rigidly connected to a circle when the circle rolls along a straight line.
Roulette is 400 years old
It is fairly certain that the game of chance originated in Italy in the 17th century. That is a good 400 years ago. The first roulette table had 38 numbers with 0 and 00 and is still played worldwide today in the form of ‘American roulette’. The game was modelled on the medieval game of chance ‘Wheel of Fortune’.
In the 18th century, the game spread throughout Europe. Roulette was particularly popular in France. King Louis XV tried in vain to ban gambling. In 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte only allowed gambling in gambling houses in the Palais Royal in Paris until it was banned again by King Louis-Philippe I in 1837. However, the temporary end of the success story of roulette in France was also a beginning. The game of chance travelled from France to Germany and other European countries.
Roulette is also one of the most popular games of chance in online casinos. This is possible thanks to the use of state-of-the-art technology. Players can watch the broadcast via their browser and play live roulette and other table games. The croupiers can even communicate with the player.
To set themselves apart from other casinos and attract new players, some European casinos cancelled a zero. This reduced the house advantage and the simple odds were closer to 50:50 again. This worked very well at the time and casinos with roulette wheels with two zeros quickly became less popular. So they had no choice but to follow suit and also only use one zero. In Europe, this way of playing has prevailed to this day.
Across the pond
Roulette also spread quite quickly in the United States. It was brought to New Orleans by European immigrants at the beginning of the 19th century. It was first played on steamboats along the Mississippi. To this day, the game of chance has remained in its basic version with 38 numbers. It was later called ‘American roulette’ to distinguish it from the version with one zero that was widespread in Europe.
The first millionaire
The first player to win a million in roulette in a very short space of time was the Briton Charles Wells. In 1891, he won over a million francs at the Monte Carlo casino – with a stake of £4,000. He had previously scammed this money through investment fraud.
After a total of eleven hours, he had broken the bank twelve times. This meant that the casino had to bring twelve additional sets of chips to the table because all the other chips went into his pocket. Although the casino had already deployed private detectives at the time, they were unable to uncover the system Wells had presumably used.
Charles Wells was then swimming in money and organised parties on his newly acquired yacht. But the celebrations didn’t last long. One day, the authorities stormed the wild goings-on off the Côte d’Azur with an arrest warrant. Wells was extradited to England and found guilty of 23 counts of fraud.