People have always loved games and gambling. Even the royal French court got into it: Did you know that the exciting, deceptively simple game of roulette has been around for about 250 years?
It’s not clear how exactly roulette came about, but we do know a few things about one of our favorite games here at the Riviera Hotel & Casino:
- Roulette came from France. How do we know this? The word means “little wheel.”
- The French mathematician/physicist/inventor/Catholic philosopher Blaise Pascal might have been the one to have created roulette. Legend has it that Pascal, who had been a child prodigy and loved the theory behind gaming and averages, was trying to create a perpetual motion machine and ended up spinning a large wheel during his experiments. An enterprising friend of Pascal’s apparently saw money in that wheel and spun it into “gold” by introducing roulette as a gambling game at Court.
- Another creation legend behind roulette puts another Frenchman, François Blanc, at the epicenter of the wheel: Blanc founded the first casinos in Monte Carlo in the 18th century, and he allegedly sold his soul to the devil to create the little wheel. The sum of all the wheel numbers, incidentally, is 666.
However it came about, the modern version of roulette has been played since at least 1765, when it emerged in Paris.
When the first American casino opened in, bien sûr, New Orleans in 1800, it allegedly opened with a roulette wheel, thanks to French immigrants who brought the game with them. Since then, the wheel has spun out to every casino in the world.
The Riviera is proud to offer dynamite roulette in our casino, with more chances for you to win! Try and find a better roulette offering than our single “0” roulette: it increases the odds for the player by taking the double “00” off the wheel. And the Riviera is one of only a smattering of casinos offering the game.
For the best, most enhanced gaming experience, make sure to check out Riviera Rewards: find out more details on our most exciting gaming program here.
