Gambling has been around for many, many years. Herodotus described games of chance among the Persians and Greeks as early as 550 BC, but some say these games are even older. Ancient dice and gambling games can be seen in the British Museum and in many other places around the world.

Of course, we do not have to go to such extraordinary lengths today in order to enjoy fantastic games of chance, as we can just log in at NV Casino and select from thousands of possible choices. Right, but how did gambling games come to be, and specifically – where did roulette originate?

Roulette – Not So Ancient as You May Think!

As it turns out, roulette is hardly the ancient gambling game you may assume it is! Quite to the contrary, the game was finally formed as a concept in the 17^th century when French mathematician Blaise Pascal was looking to discover a perpetual motion machine, but he ended up giving birth to the roulette wheel instead.

Of course, he didn’t imagine the roulette you know today, but his work was fundamental for creating the wheel and the core concept of the game. From there on, other inventors started experimenting with a way to turn this concept into something that could help pass the time for the aristocracy.

The ennui of privileged life was difficult at a time when there were no board games, cinemas, fast food, and streaming platforms. And thus, in the 18^th century, the roulette wheel was finally born. It required a lot of heavy lifting, naturally, and was only affordable by the upper class, who were able to have private games organized in their saloons and invite their equally privileged friends.

Gambling spread quickly across Europe with the invention of the roulette wheel, too. In 1842, to make sure that “the house” had the advantage, François and Louis Blanc invented the addition of the zero, which was previously not part of the roulette wheel and, therefore, was not part of the 36 numbers available.

The tweaked wheel was introduced at the Casino de Spa at the time, and it became a way for casinos to generate steady profits.

Roulette As We Know It Today – The Online Revolution

Of course, neither the 18^th nor the 19^th century roulette is the standard today. Today’s roulette wheels are mostly the same – single zero wheels that are perfectly leveled however to avoid the so-called wheel bias and offer everyone fair gameplay – plus the house edge. 

However, things have gotten really interesting with the arrival of the Internet. Internet wheels have been adopted for online gaming, and they have achieved notable success. For example, some companies have even pushed the boundaries of what is possible further, offering a brand-new way of experiencing the game.

Many developers have introduced special features such as progressive jackpots, randomly assigned multipliers and even special side bets that you can bet on! Although roulette has its origins in the 18^th century, or even earlier if you believe accounts about the game being inspired by ancient games, the roulette we play today is honed to perfection.

Blaise Pascal may not have expected his idea to give birth to one of the world’s most popular gambling. If anything, though, for so long as there are casinos, Pascal’s incidental legacy will live on – much like the perpetual motion machine he initially wanted to create.

Some may argue that he has succeeded!