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Roulette History
The tale of roulette history begins in France in 1655. The man responsible for the creation of the roulette wheel is famed mathematician Blaise Pascal. He made numerous contributions to mathematics, and is still one of history's most revered mathematical figures. Pascal's triangle is still taught in high schools around the world. There is a unit of atmospheric pressure named after Pascal. His is also the name given to one of the more popular computer programming languages.
Blaise Pascal enters gambling and roulette history in the year 1655. The roulette wheel is invented as a byproduct in his attempts to create a perpetual motion device. While his perpetual motion device will never come to fruition, roulette will live on to the present day and beyond.
Roulette's gambling potential was spotted early on. For the first nearly two centuries of its history the roulette wheel remains little changed from the original basic design created by Pascal. Then in 1842 two Frenchmen, Francois and Louis Blanc add a 0 to the numbers of the roulette wheel. There are now 37 numbers on the roulette, ranging from 0 to 36. Adding the 0 increases the house odds of winning.
There is a tale that these two Frenchmen struck a deal with the devil in exchange for the secrets of the roulette. This tale is partly inspired by the fact that if you add up all of the numbers to 36 you receive a sum of “666,” the number of the beast.
At the time that they made this addition to the roulette wheel gambling was outlawed in France. This did not stop the popularity of roulette from spreading across Europe. Francois Blanc himself established the first casinos in Monte Carlo, where roulette would become “King of Casino Games.”
Sometime during the 1800's roulette also traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States. In the United States a double 0 is added for an even 38 numbers on the wheel. Sometimes in the US the 00 is replaced with an American Eagle. The development of roulette varies slightly between the American and European versions.
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