Blaise Pascal was a Legend in His Own Time… and Ours
Many gambling games have colorful histories that go back hundreds of years. The origins of casino games are murky at best and downright ridiculous at worst. Roulette, however, has a history that leads back in time directly to one man - Blaise Pascal.
There is a bit of speculation that roulette was actually invented in China and that it made its way to the Continent via traders and merchants who did business in the Far East. But a much more prevalent theory is that Blaise Pascal - a French philosopher and mathematician - invented the roulette wheel, especially because the word "roulette" means small wheel in the French language.
The amazing thing about Pascal is that roulette is not his only claim to fame (in fact, his role as the inventor of the roulette wheel is probably his least lauded accomplishment). When it comes to mathematics, though, Pascal - who was a legend in his own time - is a superstar and his famous (or infamous, if you ask students the world over) triangle is still studied in most high schools and universities. Pascal is also the name of a well-known and much-used computer program. Blaise Pascal didn't need roulette to cement his name in history (but it helped).
Pascal was the Father of the Roulette Wheel
So why was a famous philosopher and mathematician like Blaise Pascal fooling around with gambling equipment? In 1655, while he was toying with the concept of perpetual motion, Pascal came up with the roulette wheel, albeit a primitive version of the wheel so widely used today in casinos.
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He may not have nailed down a device that can stay perpetually in motion - nor did he necessarily intend for his device to be a gambling tool - but roulette fans throughout the ages owe Blaise Pascal a debt of gratitude for designing what turned out to be the prototype of the casino roulette wheel. And here's a tidbit of of trivia about Pascal - he is said to be the first man to ever wear a wrist watch!
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But if the roulette wheel can be traced to Pascal, the modern-day version of roulette itself can be attributed to Francois and Louis Blanc who, in 1842, added a zero to Pascal's wheel, forever shifting the odds in the house's favor. Legend has it that either Blaise Pascal or the Blanc brothers sold their souls to the devil for the secret of the roulette wheel, a story "substantiated" by the fact that all the numbers on a roulette wheel add up to 666 (which is the "number of the beast," a significant number in devil worship). In any case, Blaise Pascal is the trail-Blaiser in roulette history and roulette fans tip their berets to him every day.
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