Roulette, not surprisingly, is a French word meaning “small wheel”. It is generally agreed that the first Roulette Wheel was originally invented to be a perpetual motion machine in 1655, by the French scientist Blaise Pascal, who is otherwise known for his work in the field of probability. First played, ironically enough, in a monastery to ease the boredom, it soon found its way into an early type of casino in Paris, where it was beheld as a game for the glamorous and intelligent. In 1842, Francois and Luis Blanc established the first true casinos in Monte Carlo. It was here, according to legend, that in exchange for their souls, the devil shared with them the secret of Roulette.
Continuing along this sinister, albeit far-fetched, interpretation of history, the two men chose to use the numbers 0 to 36, whose sum when added together totals 666 – the number of the beast! Difficult as these stories are to prove, the game has always had an aura of the supernatural associated with it.
The first modern Roulette Wheel, with its alternating colors and odd/even numbers, also comes from France – this time a true Paris casino. Roulette made it’s way to the US – sometime in the early 1800s. The game was instantly popular with the sort who made their living by relying on luck, patience, and superstition. The miners and gold speculators who built the American West embraced the game during the Gold Rush and it became very popular in the United States, as was Jackpotcity slots.