Roulette’s roots
Many of you probably played spin the bottle (don’t deny it) when you were kids (and maybe you still play it at your company’s holiday party), so the idea of playing a game of chance by spinning an object isn’t foreign. And if spin the bottle isn’t gambling, I don’t know what is - especially if you were one of the unlucky girls stuck in my circle.
The exact origins of roulette are unknown, but you can trace the modern components of the game (the flywheel and red/black slots) back to the famous 17th-century mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal. He’d been tinkering
with perpetual-motion devices and gave the name roulette to the wheel he was working on.
In 1842, a couple of French brothers named Francois and Louis Blanc invented single-zero roulette to attract more players. The idea was a hit, and Charles III, the Prince of Monaco, invited Francois to establish a casino in Monte Carlo. Legend claims that Francois sold his soul to the devil in exchange for the secrets of roulette. And if you want to enter the realm of the sort of creepy (cue the Twilight Zone music), add up the numbers 1 through 36 - the sum equals 666.
