Did you know that the roulette wheel was invented by the French inventor Blaise Pascal. Pascal was actually trying to create a perpetual movement machine, but ended up with the roulette wheel - not a bad rap.
The double 00 position found on American Roulette Wheels were added only when roulette found its way to the United States of America. Previous to this the wheel only had the single 0 position, but the American casino owners didn't feel that the house had enough of an edge with this and so added the extra position.
The chap that added the original one 0 position was named Francois Blanc; he was also responsible for setting up the first casino in Monte Carlo. It was rumored that in order to learn the secrets of roulette Mr. Blanc actually made a pact with the devil. The evidence lies in the wheel itself: If you add all the numbers of the board together you come to the sum of the devil, 666.
Row 5 is the worst row to bet on; statistically speaking row 5 is the least likely row to win.
One of the most impressive recent wins was by an English man called Ashley Revel who sold everything he owned in 2004 and went to a Las Vegas Casino. He put down the sum of all of his possessions, $135, 300, on a double or nothing bet. He bet on red, and red came in - he left with double his money!
Also in 2004, a group of 3 were accused of winning over 1,000,000 GBP by illegal measures in a London casino. The casino charged the group with using mobile phone and laser technology in order to predict the falling of the ball. The case was taken to court and the casino lost - the group kept all of their winnings.
Einstein apparently commented that “you can't beat a roulette table unless you steal from it”.
Roulette has played a part in many a flick, the most famous of which being James Bond's 'Diamonds are Forever', and of course Casablanca where we found our hero, Rick, fixing the wheel for a destitute client to win big and be able to escape to America.
