History of Roulette

Roulette History- First Spin

The game of roulette has been around in some form or the other for a very long time, at least a number of centuries back. It would not be wrong to say that it has been around since the time of early civilization, as you find references to games of a similar nature from as long back as the time of the Roman civilization.

The spinning wheel has been used for a number of activities ever since the wheel first came into existence, and gambling is certainly one activity that it has been used for since the early days. There are references to soldiers revolving their shields on the top of their swords from the days of early civilization. Even more striking is the fact that the soldiers of the Roman era used to spin the wheels of their chariots, after turning them over.

As can be expected from such a popular game, there have been many people claiming to be the first to come up with the oldest of all casino games, from the Chinese to the French to the Italians. The Chinese claim the game has been around their country since prehistoric times, the French have two claims to it – the French monks and Blaise Pascal, a French scientist from the 17th century, and the Italian connection is apparently in the form of Don Pasquale, a mathematician.

Roulette History – Origins of the Current Game

The game of roulette, in its current form, came into existence in 1765 in Paris, France. Apparently, an officer of the French police force, Gabriel de Sartine, was looking for a gambling game to counter the threat of cheats in the city. However, a similar game called E-O, an abbreviation for Even-Odd, was being played in Bath, England, in 1739. That game went out of circulation by 1820, though, while roulette remains.

The game of roulette gets its name, obviously given its French origin, from the French word ‘roue’, which means ‘wheel’. In the early days of the current game, you could find both the single zero and double zero games. The single zero wheel came into existence courtesy of the Blanc brothers – Francois and Louis – in the 19th century; in 1842, to be precise.

Roulette History – The Game Reaches the United States

In the 1800s, the game of roulette traveled outside France and reached the shores of the United States of America through New Orleans, which had a strong French connection. In the United States, the game’s operators opted for the double-zero wheel, as it increased the house advantage compared to the single-zero wheel.

In those early days, the operators also made the wheel speed faster than in the standard 36 spins per hour you saw in the casinos of Europe, three times faster than normal, in fact. That may have gone out over time, but the use of the double-zero remained, and the game branched into another version, called American roulette, characterized by the double-zero.

Though gambling was earlier illegal in the United States, there were a number of gambling operations existing, some from as long back as 1890. In the 1930s, the state of Nevada legalized gambling and casinos started springing up and one could now freely play roulette in all these casinos. There was a further change in the scene as big corporations started acquiring casinos towards the latter half of the 20th century, since the 1960s.

Roulette History – Going Online

Towards the end of the 20th century, especially in the 1990s, the gambling industry decided to operate a parallel platform on the Internet. This led to online casinos springing up all over the Internet, and roulette now had a new home – the Internet. The advent of online roulette ensured the game reached out to players from across the world. Of the two major forms of roulette available today – European and American – European roulette is more popular among players because of the single-zero, which means a lower house advantage.