If there is one casino game I enjoy playing the most is Roulette. While this is a great table game to play in any online casino it is best played IRL (in real life) with the thrills and excitement of a full table. But I digress because I am not here to tell you how exciting Roulette is, I am here to tell you some interesting facts about it. I have gone out of my way to fully research and truth test these ten facts that I think are all rather interesting…

It Was Invented By Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, writer and Catholic theologian. Not only did he invent the Roulette wheel in 1720 he also invented Pascal’s calculators! While it was a very primitive version of the game it was indeed called Roulette.

Roulette balls Are Still Made of Ivory

While some have recently switched to Teflon or ceramic most casino quality Roulette balls are still made of ivory. This is of course humanely and sustainably sourced but they are still made of it which mostly comes from tusked animals that have died of natural causes or shed their tusks.

There is No Fool Proof Betting Strategy

You might be thinking of only betting on red or black, then doubling the bet every time you lose to make sure you win in the end. But in Roulette, there is something called the ‘gamblers fallacy’ which means each spin on the wheel is ALWAYS the same. But surely if you keep betting with that method you will get there in the end, right? No, because the ‘gamblers fallacy’ once saw a casino in Connecticut only spin red across all of its 15 casino wheels, 32 times in a row! What are the odds of that? It’s 50/50 because each spin is always the same odds, no matter how weird the results seem to make it making each bet the same.

Its Name Means ‘Small Wheel’

In fact, it comes from two words in classic French which are ‘Wheel” which translates as ‘la roue’ and ‘Small’ which translates as ‘petite’. Put those two words together and you have ‘la roue petite’ which was then joined together to make “La Roulette”.

The Worlds Largest (Working) Roulette Wheel is Upside Down!

The largest ‘working’ roulette wheel measures 8.75 m (28 ft 8.48 in) and is located in Casino Du Liban, Jounieh, Lebanon. But what makes this giant wheel even more interesting is that it is located on the dome ceiling of the casino and is controlled electronically, but it still 100% random and you can bet on it.

Roulette Has Often Been Called The Devils Wheel

There are many pieces of literature that refer to the humble Roulette wheel as the “Devils Wheel”. While some people will say that is because the sum of all the numbers on the roulette wheel (from 0 to 36) add up to 666 (which is the “Number of the Beast”) it is mostly down to gambling being a sin and nothing more because the term was used well before the game of Roulette has established parameters like 36 numbers on the wheel.

Roulette is The Cheapest Casino Game To Play

Of all the table games in a real-world casino Roulette is the slowest game of them all and thus your money will last a lot longer. At just $5 per spin you can expect to lose $80 per hour based on never winning compared to $275 per hour while playing Blackjack (again based on never winning anything).

There Are Many Different Forms of Roulette

It’s not just real-world and online Roulette to talk about here, there is Double Ball Roulette, Multi-Wheel Roulette and regional games like European, American and even Japanese style Roulette games all of which are slightly different.

A Casino Wheel Has Pockets and Frets

The little sections the ball falls into are called ‘pockets’ and the little walls between those pockets are called ‘frets’ and are always manufactured from non-magnetic materials like brass and aluminium.

This is the Exact Roulette Mathematical Model

This crazy looking jumble of letters and numbers is the mathematical formula that tells you how to work out the bet’s expected net return, or the profitability it is equal to. If you can work it out please do let us know.

Do you have any other amazing facts about Roulette that you would like to share with us? If you do why not tells us in the comments below.