Why are there 37 numbers on European roulette wheels?
score:4
The single 0 style roulette wheel was introduced in 1843 to compete against other casinos double 0 style roulette wheel that has existed at least since 1794.
Other versions had 70 (Biribi), some had less.
The game has been played in its present form since as early as 1796 in Paris. An early description of the roulette game in its current form is found in a French novel La Roulette, ou le Jour by Jaques Lablee, which describes a roulette wheel in the Palais Royal in Paris in 1796. The description included the house pockets, "There are exactly two slots reserved for the bank, whence it derives its sole mathematical advantage." It then goes on to describe the layout with, "...two betting spaces containing the bank's two numbers, zero and double zero". The book was published in 1801. An even earlier reference to a game of this name was published in regulations for New France (Québec) in 1758, which banned the games of "dice, hoca, faro, and roulette".
The roulette wheels used in the casinos of Paris in the late 1790s had red for the single zero and black for the double zero. To avoid confusion, the color green was selected for the zeros in roulette wheels starting in the 1800s.
In 1843, in the German spa casino town of Bad Homburg, fellow Frenchmen François and Louis Blanc introduced the single 0 style roulette wheel in order to compete against other casinos offering the traditional wheel with single and double zero house pockets.
Upvote:2
Perhaps a bit of historical context might help clarify the mystery, by comparing its numerical choice, to that of other games of chance ?
Though currently revered as constituting primarily a game of intellect, chess has its own dice–based version, played, of course, with 32 pieces, revolving around the four main divisions of ancient Indian military; namely, infantry (pawns), cavalry (knights), war elephants (bishops), and chariots (rooks).
A simple glimpse at a list of card games by number of cards reveals those played with of 52, 32, and 36 cards as the most numerous. Needless to say, most such decks consist of four suits, oftentimes colored red and black.
A list of traditional card and tile packs informs us that :
32-card packs [...] are very common in Europe.
36-card packs [...are] in use in western Switzerland [...] and [are] quite common in Russia
40-card packs are found mostly in Latin countries where they compete against local Italian or Spanish suited decks.
Full German-suited packs [...] contain 36 cards, organized into the four German suits
without the [four] sixes, [it is] used for many Central European games
The [...] frequently encountered Swiss-suited [...] Jass pack [...] contains 36 cards
The standard Spanish-suited pack consists of 40 cards
the standard Italian-suited pack consists of 40 cards
Though the standard 52-card deck is quite popular nowadays,
there are many countries or regions where the traditional pack size is only 36 (Russia, Bavaria) or 32 (north and central Germany, Austria)
40- or 48-card Italian-suited packs are common in Italy
40- and 48-card Spanish-suited packs on the Iberian peninsula
36-card German-suited packs are very common in Bavaria and Austria.
As far as French-suited playing cards are concerned,
The most common deck sold in France is the 32-card deck
The French-Swiss pattern [...] comes only in decks of 36
Belgian packs come in either 32 or 52 cards
The Dutch pattern [...] come[s] in decks of 32 [...] or 52 cards.
The North-German pattern [...is] usually in decks of 32 cards
Genoese type cards [...] come in 36 [...], 40 [...] or 52-card packs.
The Lombard or Milanese pattern come[s] in 40-card decks
The Russian pattern [...] usually contains 52 or 36 cards
[It] can be found in many countries that were once part of the Russian Empire or Soviet Union.
The Wikipedia article also contains a picture of a
Standard 32-card deck of the Paris pattern.
For Swiss-suited playing cards,
The most common deck has 36 cards.
are a very common style [...] used in many parts of Central Europe characterized by 32- or 36-card packs
The typical northern German pack has 32 cards
Southern patterns have 36 cards
Northern patterns [...] were originally produced with 36 cards but this was reduced to 32 cards
Most [southern] games require only 32 cards
The Württemberg pattern [...] used to be produced in 36 card packs
The [...] Double German [...] pattern is popular throughout the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.
[It] come[s] in packs of 32, 33 [...], or 36 cards.
In Hungary and other eastern European countries they [...] come in 32-card packs.
In South Tyrol, 40-card, German-suited packs are still produced so that Italian games can be played with them.
German speaking South Tyroleans [...] play Italian card games that require 40 cards
Indeed,
The Salisburghesi deck originally consisted of 33 cards, being the 32 cards used for Tyrolean games [...] plus [...] a wild card
This has since been increased to 40 cards as per most other Italian decks
Speaking of which,
40-card stripped decks [...] are the most common format found in Italy today.
This is the result of popular 16th and 17th century games
Trentine cards are sold in either packs of 40 or 52.
The Bergamasche pattern comes in decks of 40 cards only.
The Trevisane deck [...] comes in sets of 40 or 52.
the Triestine pack [...] was created in the mid-19th century [...] now only 40 card decks are sold.
the 40 card Primiera Bolognese set [...is] used for standard games
Fiorentine cards come in packs of 40
the Sardinian deck only contains the standard Italian set of 40
When it comes to Spanish-suited playing cards,
a deck is usually made up of 40 or 48 cards
Stripped decks have 40 cards
The Castilian pattern is the most widespread pattern in Spain.
[It] come[s] in packs of 40 or 50 cards.
The Mexican pattern [...] come[s] in decks of 40 cards
the Old Catalan pattern [...is] found in decks of 40 or 48 cards.
The Cádiz pattern [...is] found in decks of 40 or 50 cards.
The Modern Spanish Catalan pattern is the second most widespread pattern in Spain and is very common in Hispanic America.
[It] come[s] in decks of 40 or 50 cards.
The Parisian Spanish [...] pattern [...is] sold in decks of 40 or 50 cards.
The Piacentine pattern [...] come[s] in 40-card decks.
The Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, and Latin Americans use mostly 40-card decks.
Furthermore,
The most popular card game in 16th-century Europe was Piquet, played with a 36-card deck
Around 1700, it [...] create[d] the 32-card deck, which is now the most popular format in France.
32 and 36-card decks are the most widespread in countries that were once part of the Holy Roman (the Low Countries, Germany, and Switzerland), Austro-Hungarian, and Russian empires.
The encyclopedic article also includes a picture of
A 32-card Piquet deck.
Germanic, Spanish and Italian Tarot variants [...] creat[e] a deck with as few as 32 cards.
Upvote:2
36 is a Highly Composite Number:
A highly composite number is a positive integer with more divisors than any smaller positive integer has.
36 can be divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 12, and 18. This allows for many ways to bet on groups of numbers with equal chances.
Remember that you can put chips not only on one number (plein), but on the line between two numbers (cheval), on the outside line of a row of three numbers (transversale plein), the crossing of lines between four numbers (carré), on the T of a line dividing two rows of numbers with the outside line (six numbers, traversale simple), on the twelve numbers 1-12, 13-24, 25-36 (douzaines) or in a column (colonnes), and various variants of betting on half the numbers (eighteen -- pair / impair, passe / manque, rouge / noir). This is possible only because 36 divides evenly into each of those (as well as nine, which is AFAIK not used for betting though).
Similar reasoning (highly composite numbers) is why dice have 6 sides, many customary units come in twelves, the day has 24 hours, an hour has 60 minutes or the compass has 360 degrees: Easy to divide any which way without having to deal with remainders.
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