|
History of Roulette
 |
The claim to the French inventing Roulette, although unclear is probably the most logical claim of any of the gambling games. The claim lies with a French mathematician from the 17th century, named Blaise Pascal. Pascal was inspired to invent Roulette due to his fascination with perpetual motion devices and it wasn't long before he had produced a large wheel for testing his experiments on, the story goes that it was actually a friend of Blaise Pascal who suggested using the wheel device for gambling. There are many who do not see the account as accurate and instead believe that Roulette was brought to Europe by Dominican Monks who fell upon the game in china during there trading with the Chinese, however the name Roulette does mean 'Small Wheel' in French so it is easy to see where the dispute comes from.
It was fellow Frenchmen Francois and Louis Blanc that changed the Roulette Wheel by adding a single 'O' to the wheel, this was done in order to increase the odds of the house. It was also Francois Blanc who introduced and established the casinos in Monte Carlo ,he was also accused of selling his soul to the devil in order to gain the secrets of Roulette. What is most interesting about this story is that if you add all the numbers of the Roulette Wheel it totals 666 as known in religious works as 'The Mark Of The Beast'.
By the time that Roulette had spread through Europe to the United States it was not only gaining popularity but it had also gained another Zero. The original single 'O' of the European Roulette Wheel had be rejected by the Americans and was replaced by 'OO' and in some cases it was changed to an American Eagle. By the 1800's it was Roulette that had become the most popular game in every casino and was often referred to as 'The King of Casinos', many believe that this name was stemmed from the glamour that was associated with the game.
There are some famous bets that have been made on the Roulette wheel in both reality and film. In the movie Casablanca there is a scene in Rick's Café American where a trick Roulette Wheel is being used, we then see Rick urge a Bulgarian Refugee to place his last three chips on number 22, as Rick knows the wheel will land on this number, he signals to the dealer to do so, he then lets him win again. A guitarist for the band Kent named Harri Manty went to Las Vegas with the entire music video budget and bet it all on Black, his luck was in and all the additional money that was won went to charity.
In 2004 a man named Ashley Revell who came from London sold all his possessions including his clothes. While in Las Vegas he took what he had made , $135,300 to the Plaza Hotel Casino where he placed all his money on red in a double or nothing bet , he won and doubled his money making $270,600.
|
