What Can We Learn from the History of Roulette?

Your top online casino - Everygame Casino - carries over 300 games.  While it is still true that slots remain the most popular online casino game, we also carry many other games.  In today’s article, we’ll talk about roulette.  We have previously detailed the bets you can make in roulette so here we will examine the history of roulette and……..well, we hope to surprise you a bit later on!

Where Did Roulette Come From?

The name alone should give you some hint: roulette is a game that was originally played in France.  Since the name “proves” the game’s French origins, some fanciful theories have been asserted as to its exact origin.

One such theory has it that the mathematician Blaise Pascal, in the 17th century, was looking for a perpetual motion machine and just happened to stumble upon the roulette wheel!  The artistry of the roulette wheel indicates that as a casino game, its function was much more than as a mere gambling game or pastime.

Roulette Was a Game of Artistry as Slots Were “Just a Game”

It is interesting to note that even at the time that roulette featured artistry in the table and especially in the wheel, the early slots, developed about 150 years after roulette, were by today’s standards, rather dull, having only three reels, one payline, and little creativity.

Thankfully, slots have come of age in the digital era and today are highly creative but that is the subject of a different article.

Online Roulette

Given that we live in the digital age, we should also look at the short history of roulette at a top casino online.  The great challenge for game providers for online casinos has always been digitally replicating the beauty of the roulette wheel.  The great success of roulette at Everygame Casino is because of the wonderful creative teams at Real Time Gaming, our games provider.

Wheels and Stones

We said that we would try to surprise you.  It probably doesn’t surprise you to hear that people long ago used wheels to arrive at decisions.  It probably also doesn’t surprise you to hear that ancients used stones in games a very long time ago.

What may surprise you is the extent to which wheels and stones were used by people long ago.

Rome and Greece

The Romans of pre-Biblical times used to determine “winners” by spinning a chariot wheel.  There are two things to understand from this.  One is that the Romans felt that they could determine the truth by simply spinning a wheel.  The second important insight is that people were not so far removed from the invention of the wheel and the use of wheels for more than transportation and grinding seeds and olives.

At the time, wheels had almost mythical qualities.  Two Bible stories demonstrate both the other-worldly image of wheels at the time and the faith in non-scientific ways of finding truth.

The Biblical story of Jonah indicates the extent to which methods that we would find unacceptable as truth finding methods were felt to indicate absolute truth.  Jonah had set to sea in order to not have to obey a command from God.  The sea began to become stormy and the sailors thought that they would die at sea.  So, they drew lots and they “discovered” that Jonah was the cause of the turbulence.  And we all know what happened to him after that....

In the story of the Israelite escape from slavery in Egypt, God made the chariot wheels that the Egyptian army was riding turn backwards! Not exactly the way to get where you're going...

The ancient Greeks used a shield in the same way that the Romans used chariot wheels.

Truth Finding Becomes a Game

From using wheels or other round objects to determine absolute truth, stones evolved as the earliest toys.  Kids in those days didn’t have entire stores devoted to selling toys!  Like all people, they improvised.  The round objects that kids in those days used in their games were the most abundant natural resource: stones!

Games Used to be Just for Kids

Stone games abounded in ancient, even pre-historic times.  But games were primarily the way kids passed the time.  Keep in mind that kids in those days had adult responsibilities at very young ages but they also had some time to play.

Adults had little or no time to play.  So, kids made up games using stones.

The Modern Day Wheel, Stone, Adult Game

Now we have to jump ahead many centuries.  In the 17th century some adults had some free time to play.  Some kids had some extra free time to play as well.  But it is the free time that adults began to have around the 17th century that brings it all together.

The world of adult free time activity was ready for a game that would use a wheel to determine absolute truth, that would use a stone in helping to determine that truth, and that would be fun for adults to play.  There is no denying the fact that roulette players at land based casinos make more noise than the players at any other type of game including the large banks of slots.

We would be willing to bet (LOL) that not one roulette player in a thousand realizes that roulette is the single game that brings together the ancient desire for truth, wheels and stones as truth telling amulets of a sort, the affluence of modern people, and their desire for games that they can make a lot of noise playing.

Make Online Roulette Your Go To Party Game

A lot of people put together a “casino night” as a party for their many friends, relatives, colleagues, and so on.  If the casino night party uses actual money, then we suggest that all proceeds go to charity.  In most cases, the party is just that: a party.

Roulette lends itself perfectly to such parties.  You put the casino on your large screen television and suddenly people become as enthusiastic about every spin as the players in land based casinos are.

Otherwise calm people will shout their bets.  Husbands will tell their wives to bet a certain number because the player who wears that number made a great play to help their team win a sports match.

The shouting will stop as the wheel gets spun and then will start up again as the wheel slows.  People will yell at the little virtual roulette stone to fall into their slot of choice.  And what merriment there will be when the stone lands on your number!

Roulette as the Personification of Civilized Living

It’s amazing how one simple game can have so many tangents that point to the long evolution of human society!  Today, roulette is the social game of choice for millions.  Real Time Gaming works hard to make sure that every facet of their, and our, roulette games are beautiful to look at and exciting to play!