(from The French for:
"small wheel") Roulette is gambling game in which players bet on
which red or black numbered compartment of a revolving wheel a small ball
(spun in the opposite direction) will come to rest within. Bets are placed on
a table marked to correspond with the compartments of the wheel. It is a
gambling game universally played in the gambling casinos of Europe, North and
South America, Asia, and Africa. Roulette is a banking game, and all bets are
placed against the bank--that is the "house" or proprietor of the
game.
Fanciful stories about the invention of Roulette
include its invention by the 17th-century French mathematician Blaise Pascal
(a by product of him trying to make a perpetual motion machine), by a French
monk, and by the Chinese, from whom it was transmitted to France by Dominican
monks. The ancient Romans also had a similar "Wheel of Fortune" game
that they played by turning a chariot on its side.
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. Whatever its antecedents and origins,
Roulette emerged only in the late 18th century as a glamorous attraction in
the casinos of Europe & has long been associated with the gaming rooms at
Monte-Carlo.
