|
UK
Casino Times
> The History Of Roulette
01 November
2005
The History Of
Roulette
No
one will ever know who invented roulette - Roman soldiers,
monks returning from Tibet and a French mathematician have
all been credited with it. Find out more about the
mysterious history of the "King of Casino Games" that is
such a favourite of today's of online casino fans.
Some will tell you Roman
soldiers invented roulette by spinning chariot wheels.
Others give the credit to wandering monks who discovered it
in Tibet. Still more credit a French mathematician searching
for the secret of perpetual motion.
In fact, the only thing
that can be said with certainty about this most
mathematically precise of games is that no one really knows
for sure how it began.
The actual name of the
game is French - it means "small wheel" - and the European
version of the game, which features a single zero, is
sometimes known as "French roulette".
The likeliest version of
its history certainly puts its origin firmly in France,
although some of its roots may be in the UK and a great deal
of its future turned out to be in the United States - and,
of course, across the world on the internet in
Online
Casinos.
It may or may not be true
that Roman soldiers used to tip chariots over and spin the
wheels for fun but, if they did, it's unlikely the game
survived the Dark Ages to become the forerunner of modern
roulette.
Another romantic tale
cites an old Chinese game that involved arrangements of 37
statuettes. This game is said to have spread to Tibet, where
French Dominican monks found it and replaced the statuettes
with the numbers 0-36, which they placed around a revolving
wheel.
As a story, it has the
virtue of explaining roulette's French heritage - but it
ignores the inconvenient fact that early French wheels, like
modern American ones, had a 38th slot featuring a double
zero.
A more likely candidate
for the game's French forefather is the mid-17th century
mathematician, physicist, and religious philosopher Blaise
Pascal, who developed the theory of probability and made
devices to explore the concept of perpetual
motion.
He is said to have
invented the game as a by-product of his perpetual motion
work while on a monastic retreat; soon it was being played
in a Paris casino.
Whoever actually was
responsible, by the 18th century games were appearing that
bore an increasing resemblance to modern roulette. In 1720 a
game called "Roly-Poly" was being played in England that
involved a spinning ball and rotating horizontal wheel. Soon
after, the dandy and society leader Beau Nash introduced a
fashionable game called "Even-Odd", which had similarities
to the outer table bets in modern roulette.
These games were banned by
successive Gaming Acts, but what really killed off the
development of the British game was the influx of refugees
fleeing the French Revolution.
The gamblers among them
brought early roulette to Britain - the game had developed
some 20 years before, with police encouragement, as a
cleaner version of existing games.
By the mid-19th century,
France was once again a congenial place for gambling, and
roulette made its return thanks to Francois Blanc, who -
allegedly - did a deal with the Devil for the secret of the
game.
Whether he was demonically
inspired - and it is true that adding up the numbers 1-36
gives you 666 - Blanc is certainly credited with
standardising the single-zero wheel and founding the first
casinos in Monte Carlo.
From here, it spread
rapidly across Europe and crossed the Atlantic, where it
re-acquired the double zero (although some houses initially
used an American eagle instead).
Today it is known as the
"King of Casino Games", an internationally recognised symbol
of glamour, excitement and the high-rolling lifestyle. And,
with the growth of online gaming, it has never been easier
to bring a slice of that glamour into your own home whenever
you feel like it.
Return
to Articles index
Also see:
UK
Online Casinos
Reviews of the leading, approved UK online casinos. Includes
details of the free money welcome bonuses offered to new
players by the online casinos.
Online
Casinos Guide
New to online casinos? We take you through the process in a
friendly, easy-going way.
CasinoTimes.co.uk
is updated every day with the latest online casino and
gambling news.
Click
Here
to bookmark us and check us out daily!
|
