Roulette, translated as "small wheel" is the most popular game of chance in Europe. A very primitive version of roulette was introduced in the 17th century by the French scientist, Blaise Pascal.
It is said that this was a by-product of his perpetual motion devices. Frenchmen Francois and Louis Blanc invented the single "0" roulette game in 1842. Because gambling was illegal in France during this time, the game was introduced in Hamburg, Germany where it became very popular and replaced an earlier version that featured higher odds. At a later date, Francois and his son Camille were responsible for bringing the game of roulette back to southern France for the Prince of Monaco, Charles III. As a result, the lavish, world-famous resort of Monte Carlo was developed. When roulette came to the U.S. in the early 1800s, the improvements were deleted, and a double "00" returned. The game became popular in the old west of America during the California Gold Rush.
Screenshot from Silver Dollar Casino Software - Click to Visit
Next to Blackjack, Roulette is one of the most popular games played in modern Casinos. It is also amongst one of the oldest Casino games. Roulette is somewhat unique amongst modern table games in that it employs a mechanical device as the key element of the game. This is the large and very distinct Roulette wheel, which is mounted horizontally on one end of the table. The hollow of the wheel contains thirty-seven colored slots numbered from 0 to 36 - half the slots are red and half are black and the 0 is green - and a ‘00’ in American Style Roulette.
Roulette is played by spinning a small ball, usually metal or ivory – counterclockwise - around a wheel spinning clockwise. When the wheel comes to rest, the ball drops into one of these slots. The object of Roulette is to predict the slot the ball will land in.
Wagers in Roulette are placed on an area of the table marked with a pattern of boxes and numbers.
