History

The contribution of Blaise Pascal in development of Roulette

It was in 1655 that Blaise Pascal, a well-known mathematician, developed roulette casino. He developed roulette wheel when he was trying to develop a perpetual motion. Roulette wheel was the outcome of this attempt which never yielded the desired result.

Blaise Pascal was really an authority in mathematics. He is still remembered in mathematics through his triangle which forms part of the curriculum of the high schools around the globe. The name Pascal is also used as the unit of atmospheric pressure and there is also a computer programming language named Pascal.

The roulette remained as Pascal left it for almost two centuries. It was later that little change was made to it in the year of 1842.

Francois and Louis Blanc's 0 addition to roulette wheel

The roulette continued with its original outlook for two centuries. But in 1842 two French men, namely, Francois and Louis Blanc put the finishing touches to what was started by Paschal. These two great men added the digit 0 to the roulette wheel making the total number of digits on the roulette wheel to be 37.

The number now starts from 0 to 36. The contribution of these two great men indeed increases the house odds of winning. Despite the fact that gambling was illegal in France during this time, roulette still gained ground and spread throughout Europe. In Monte Carlo for instance the first casino was set up by Francois Blanc. Roulette later became the major casino there.

Superstitions

In the roulette wheel now, the sum of all the numbers and 36 will give the number 666. Owing to the above, a story was told that these two French men have a deal with the devil. As the story have it the secrets of roulette was revealed to them by the devil as part of their deal.

Roulette which was accidentally developed by Pascal went beyond its birth place and got to the United States of America where it received another 0. So, in the United States of America version of roulette there are a total of 38 digits instead of 37 digits.

This is because of the addition of another zero. Another difference between European roulette and America version of roulette is that sometimes American eagle could be used in place of Zero.