A brief History of the French Roulette

A Long Tradition | How the double zero disappeared | The Roulette City

     When most people think of a casino, they usually think of Roulette.
In fact, there isn't a single gambling hall or on-line casino in the whole world which doesn't have at least one Roulette table with his 36 numbers, and one or two zeros.

A long tradition
     Roulette is such an old game that someone has even traced the original idea back to Ancient Rome.
We suppose that Blaise Pascal, famous french mathematician, physicist, religious philosopher, and master of prose, arranged the basic rules and mechanism of the Roulette game, alongside with the foundation for the modern theory of probabilities.
We do know that Diderot, one of the fathers of the Enlightenment, talks about the game in his Encyclopedie.
And we are also certain that Roulette was officially introduced in Paris in 1760.
The man responsible was a Mr. Startine, who worked as a police lieutenant.
Even at the time of its introduction, two types of Roulette were popular: the "little" game, which we now call "Boule", and the "big" game, which evolved into the famous Roulette game which we all know today.
Roulette was played with two zeroes until that genius of gambling, François Blanc, came up with the idea of throwing one away.

How the double zero disappeared
     "Gentlemen, place your bets": this phrase has become so famous that it is now an everyday expression.
The croupier's invitation to the player gathered around the Roulette table was first used during the 1800's by someone who really knew his business: François Blanc
And nobody has ever dreamed of changing it.

Mr. François Blanc

François Blanc's star has shined for a long time, ever since he stint as co-manager (together with his brother) of the "Bad Homberg Casino" in Germany.
It was during this period that he had a brilliant and powerful idea which soon proved to be a simple short-cut to success: Blanc simply cancelled one of the two zeros from the roulette game, thus reducing the Bank's chances of winning by 50 percent.
Of course, the players' chances increased dramatically.
One evening, soon after the double zero was eliminated, a player with a blue-blooded name sat down at the Roulette table.
The man was the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, and he quicly proceeded to break the bank with a series of lucky wins.
In a single day, our famous fortunate son won a sum which was astronomical for those times: almost a million crowns!
Two days later, the lucky Carlo Luciano Buonaparte tried again, and the result was another win of 200 thousand!
The news spread through the entire European and American gambling community in the wink of an eye, and the newspapers of the time made it clear that you could really win at "Bad Hombourg".

The Roulette City
     Blanc's reputation as the inventor of the modern Roulette (the one that we nowadays know as French or European Roulette) soon reached the ears of Charles III of Monaco, but it took four years of negotiations to convince Blanc to sign the contract.
The agreement was reached in 1863, with the creation of the Societé des Bains de Mer, (an organization which is still in business, by the way).
And, the agreement resulted in the birth of a new city where gambling was the byword: Monte-Carlo, which was named after the Prince himself.

A view of Montecarlo

Since that time (1841, to be exact) the equipment has remained unchanged: a wheel made of wood with a diameter of 56 centimeters and with 37 numbers, plus a green betting layout (also found in other colors).
And the rules of the game haven't changed either.

Top of the page