was a game only played in the french Cercles – some of them named Billard Academies.
It was at the request of Raymond Poincaré, President of the Republic from 1913 to 1920 that Paul Painlevé,, conceived the Multicolor. Indeed, it was necessary to put an end to clandestine games in Paris. If bets were allowed on games of chance, they were prohibited on games of skill like billiards, so Paul Painlevé imagined a game that would be both a game. casino games such as roulette and a game of skill like billiards. This new game was aimed at people who could not visit the casinos, too posh, hence its nickname "casino du peuple".
The Multicolore is a 25-hole "roulette" on which a billiard ball is thrown. There are 4 colors (yellow, green, red, white) and 6 holes for each of them. These 6 holes are distributed as follows:
-There are two holes that triple your bet (hit by a 2)
-There are three holes that quadruple your bet (hit by a 3)
there is a hole that multiplies your bet by 5 (hit by a 4)
The 25th box, called "star", is blue. It gives you 25 times your bet.
To me who visited more than a dozen of Cercles in Paris, I was always fascinated by the ceremonial of this game, in a select environment, although a little slow.
The players had no contact with the table where the "roulette" was. They were sitting on a bench built around the table. Cercle employees circulated around the stands and collected the bets (in jetons). The bettors indicated to them whether they bet on a color or the "etoile".
Then a clerk dressed in tuxedos and white gloves with a billiard club introduced a billiard ball on the roulette wheel (with holes large enough to accommodate it). If for example you had bet on the blue color and the ball stopped at number 2 blue, you tripled your bet (the rest is explained behind).
Then the same officials who had picked up the bets at the start, walked the stands and distributed the prizes ....