Dal Negro French Roulette Mat

Dal Negro have been the world's leading supplier of premium quality gaming boxes including Backgammon sets since the nineteen-fifties. They are also the global specialist in playing cards with a history going back to the mid-eighteenth century.

This is a high quality 70% wool, material Roulette Mat from Dal Negro. It is an French-style layout with French writing.

Although the larger mat is designed to be partnered with Dal Negro's high quality Roulette Wheels, some customers have bought a less expensive Roulette set and then purchased the 130 x 90cm Dal Negro mat as well because being larger, many more people can stand around and play the game.

Dimensions of the larger mat are 130 x 90cm (51 x 35 inches ). The number squares in the middle have an inner size of 75 x 70mm. Smaller mat is 100 x 69cm (40 x 23.5 inches) with number squares of inner dimension 62 x 60mm. The mat features a single zero - i.e. it is for European style wheels and therefore might not suit American customers.

Origins and History of Roulette

Roulette seems to have been invented by monks in a French monastery, in the 17th century. Some attribute the invention to a French scientist called Blaise Pascal during his monastic retreat on 1655. Another theory is that French Dominican monks invented Roulette, basing it upon an old Tibetan game in which the object was to arrange 37 animal statuettes into a magic number square of 666. Roulette in French means "Small Wheel" which again points back to a French origin of the game.

E.O., a relative of Roulette seems to have become rapidly very popular in the 1770s until it was banned by statute around 1782, and it could well be that E.O. is the direct English ancestor of modern Roulette.

Documentary evidence indicates that the game of roulette sprung up in the 18th century. Like many English games, the earliest mentions are in legal documents banning the game. The English Act 18 Geo. II of 1745 stated "And whereas as certain pernicious game called Roulette or Roly-Poly is daily practiced"... "no place shall be kept for the playing of the said game of Roulette or Roly-Poly"....

You can learn more about Roulette from The Online Guide to Traditional Games.