History of Roulette: Why the "Queen of the Casino" is considered a devilish invention

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Roulette is considered a product of the forces of evil - not only the church, which has been fighting this game for centuries, but also the players themselves. The signs are obvious - the "number of the beast", and the long list of human destinies mutilated by the roulette wheel, and the very uncertainty of the origin of this game. However, for some, roulette has become a ticket to a better life - and it's not just about money.

Riddle of origin

If there are quite reliable sources of information about many ways of spending time, in any case - specific mentions in chronicles, letters and books, then there is no exact information about where, when and how exactly the roulette game arose and, it seems, will never be Traditionally, the origins of the game are found in the ancient world - primarily in China, where they allegedly created stones with images of animals carved on them. Ancient Rome, with its custom of throwing lots by spinning a chariot wheel on a vertically fixed axis, is also a possible candidate for the title of the homeland of the roulette wheel. In addition, it was in ancient Roman mythology that the goddess of luck Fortune ruled human destinies with the help of the wheel.

More reliable traces of the emergence of roulette should be sought in modern Europe, but even then it is impossible to determine the exact period of the appearance of the game. It is believed that the idea itself arose thanks to the scientist Blaise Pascal, who in his research on the construction of a perpetual motion machine used a rotating wheel with balls, and besides, being a gambling man himself, he was happy to while away the time playing. Much more original is the version that the original version of the roulette was created by the inhabitants of European monasteries in order to while away their free time from prayers.

Among the predecessor games of roulette are Italian biribi, English role-poly and even-odd. Any gambling was banned in Europe - it was imposed by both the state and the church. Excitement, from French “hazard”, which means “chance, chance, luck” in translation, which completely captures the thoughts of citizens and parishioners, was a serious nuisance for the authorities. However, the frequency of issuing orders prohibiting gambling only proved that the state could not fight against a person's passion for gambling.

The very word "roulette", meaning "small wheel", was first mentioned in Paris in the 18th century. It was this century that saw the heyday of the popularity of roulette and its spread to the New World. From a normative act issued in Canada in 1758, it follows that on the territory of the French colonies, among other gambling games, roulette was also prohibited. At the end of the 18th century, the Great French Revolution destroyed gambling establishments in the country, but already under Napoleon, casinos returned to life, becoming a source of additional income for the state budget in the form of taxes.

Roulette in the Old and New Worlds and the participation of evil spirits

Since the organization of roulette is a business of a gambling house specially existing for such purposes, its very rules provided for a significant profit for the one who performed the functions of the casino. Cells "zero" and "double zero" on the roulette wheel gave a win to the casino's treasury. Brothers Blanc, François and Louis, whose names are associated with the development of French casinos in general and roulette in particular, for the first time removed the double zero from the playing field, thus reducing the profit of the institution and significantly increasing the popularity of the game among visitors to their institutions.

François Blanc ended his days as a very wealthy man, and it was said that at the beginning of his entrepreneurial journey, he made a deal with the devil himself, selling his soul and receiving the secrets of roulette in return. In support of such a transaction, the well-known fact is cited that the sum of the numbers that numbered the cells of the wheel is 666, the number of the beast mentioned in the Bible. The Blanc brothers also invented the order in which the numbers are located on the wheel, it has not changed for almost two centuries.

Another ban on gambling in France in 1837 forced entrepreneurs to move establishments to neighboring Germany, and in the 60s - to open the first casino in Monaco. In America, the rise in popularity of roulette came during the California Gold Rush, which began in 1848. The rules of the roulette game in the New World have undergone some changes that have survived to the present day. For example, in America the double zero has been preserved on the reel, and besides, the field on which the players leave their bets-chips is smaller here than in Europe. That is why the leader of the game - the croupier - acts with his hands, unlike his fellows from the Old World, who use a special paddle.

The United States also faced a ban on gambling establishments - it was in effect from 1919 to 1932, practically not affecting the popularity of roulette, only taking the gambling business into the shadows.

Famous Roulette Players

With its ability to capture the mind and will of the player, roulette is perhaps superior to any other gambling game, which is why it bears the title of "Queen of the casino" (in the English version - King of casino, "King of the casino"). The whims of Fortune, at the behest of which a small roulette ball can enrich or make a beggar, excited not only the imagination of mere mortals, but also masters of the pen, brush, or even politicians. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, being an avid roulette player, was losing huge sums of money in Bad Homburg, Germany, but it was there that he got the idea of writing the novel The Gambler.

In general, roulette did not take root in Russia, playing cards were much more popular. True, it was in our country that cruel fun arose - "Russian", or "hussar", roulette - about the origin of which there is also no reliable information.

Admirers of the "Wheel of Fortune" were often the first persons in the state, even under the French kings it was considered permissible to try one's luck in this way. There is evidence that Queen Elizabeth II of England can devote her free time to gambling. The roulette players who visited the casino were Frank Sinatra, Winston Churchill and Marlene Dietrich. And after filming a trilogy about Ocean's friends, Brad Pitt and George Clooney decided to become co-owners of a casino in Las Vegas, from time to time happily sitting down with chips at the gaming table.

Apparently, the game of roulette does not prevent a dizzying take-off of a career - if you approach it as a holiday, without devoting yourself entirely to the wheel of Fortune. Anyway, Duchess of Marlborough, who became one of the most successful women politicians in the history of England, was more than once seen at the gambling table, as her contemporary Countess of Suffolk wrote about in a letter in 1730.