European Roulette

European Roulette

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European Roulette History

French scientist and mathematician Blaise Pascal inadvertently introduced the first roulette wheel in 1655 while attempting to build a perpetual motion machine. The French recognised the gaming potential of this device immediately. Throughout the 18th century, they used it to gamble and play various games, but it was not until Paris in 1796 that roulette, meaning 'little wheel', appeared in its modern form.

During the 19th century, roulette spread like wildfire throughout Europe, in part because gambling went unchecked by government. Not only did roulette become one of the most popular casino games throughout Europe, it became instantly recognisable and an aspect of the time's pop culture. Competition among gaming houses vying for roulette business was fierce.

François and Louis Blanc were Frenchmen operating a gaming house in Hamburg, a German casino spa town. The twins had spent time in prison in their home country for stock fraud. They had been failures there and not well respected. However, they were finding success in Germany, and in order to distinguish themselves further, they introduced the single "0" roulette wheel. Up until this point, roulette wheels had two house pockets ("0" and "00"), 38 pockets in all, and were very much like the wheels in use today in Las Vegas. Those traditional European wheels had a 5.26% house odds.

The single "0" wheel with 37 total pockets introduced by Louis and François Blanc had house odds of only 2.60%. The new wheel was, of course, very alluring to clientele that recognised the lower house odds. The competition, who believed it a recipe for failure, was not so quick to adapt. The Blanc brothers became very established and very wealthy by the time they did. Soon the single "0" would become the standard casino wheel, and later, people would call it the European or French wheel to distinguish it from the American variant.

As their wheel became the prominent one, François and Louis Blanc became prominent 19th century figures renowned for the game of roulette. Legends and fantastic stories sprang up around their successes. One popular tale purported that the brothers had signed a pact with the devil in order to achieve the secrets of the wheel. Bolstering this tale was the fact that the numbers on a roulette wheel sum to 666. However, this was true of the traditional wheel as well as the Blanc wheel.

Soon after the Blanc brothers introduced the new wheel, France outlawed gambling, and Germany soon followed. These restrictions did not deter François Blanc, however. Instead, he moved his operation to Monte Carlo, where he built the first of the area's many gaming houses. It was here in Monte Carlo that roulette would become the "King of Casino Games".

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