Is Roulette the Devil's Game?

Published on May 25th, 2007 10:56am PST


Did you know that the sum of all numbers that appear on the roulette wheel is 666? This number is believed to be the Devil's number, also known as the Number of the Beast.

The legend says that back in the 17th century, the creator of Roulette, a famous mathematician Blaise Pascal from France, made a deal with the devil in order to get the game. The King finds this to be an interesting story be it a numerical coincidence or not.

It should be noted that Pascal's version of roulette was a fair game, with no house edge, as the wheel did not contain a zero or the double zero. The zero, which increased the house odds of winning, was added later in 1842 by two Frenchmen, Francois and Louis Blanc. Come to think of it, they are the ones that probably made a deal with the devil and not Blaise Pascal.

The King is very proud of roulette's heritage. Blaise Pascal has made a great contribution to mathematics and is one of history's most valued math figures. Pascal's triangle is part of every high school curriculum, the atmospheric pressure unit is named after this French math wizard and there is also a computer language that bears his name.

The King salutes Blaise Pascal and thanks him for bringing us this great game.