Amazing Trivia Tidbits About Roulette
Anyone who has been inside a casino certainly knows what roulette is. It is a game that has mesmerized countless people throughout the years. The spinning roulette wheel is one of the lasting memories that any casino player will remember for a lifetime.
If you love to play roulette, there are a few interesting bits of information about the game that will surely amaze you. For one, not everyone knows who invented the roulette wheel. That honor goes to the French inventor and scientists Blaise Pascal, who is better known as the person who invented the digital calculator. Pascal was trying to invent a perpetual motion machine but instead came up with the world's first roulette wheel.
The person who placed the single zero (0) position on the roulette wheel was no other than Francois Blanc, who also established the first Monte Carlo casino. According to legend, Blanc made a pact with the devil in exchange for the secrets of the roulette wheel. It is said that if you add up all the numbers in the roulette wheel, the sum is 666.
The old roulette wheel has only one zero, but when the game arrived in the United States, American casinos added a double zero (00) to increase the house edge. So there are now two main variations of roulette - European roulette with a single zero, and American roulette with a double zero as well as a single zero.
The famous physicist Albert Einstein was said to have quipped that the only way to beat the roulette wheel is to "steal" from it when the croupier is not looking. Maybe a sound advice only if the casinos are not that watchful!
Do you know that row 5 is the worst row to bet in a roulette game? Row 5 statistically has the least odds of winning.
In 2004, a man named Ashley Revel bet more than $135,000 - all the money he had in the world - on a roulette wheel in a Las Vegas casino. Revel placed all his money on red and walked away with double the amount.
In the same year, three gamblers were caught allegedly using laser technology and mobile phones to predict the outcome of roulette games. The group was hailed to court by a London casino, but unfortunately for the casino, the gamblers were acquitted and kept their winnings worth more than one million British pounds.
Roulette has starred in several Hollywood films. Two of the most popular movies featuring the game are the James Bond flick "Diamonds Are Forever" and "Casablanca." In the latter, the hero named Rick tried to "fix" a roulette wheel so that his poor friend can win and flee to America.
These interesting trivia tidbits will hopefully help you enjoy roulette more. The next time you see a roulette wheel, remember these amazing roulette trivia tidbits and get ready to experience a whole new level of roulette fun and excitement.