Roulette is a game that has been around for centuries. It involves a wheel with numbered pockets, where bets are placed by laying chips on the betting mat.
Bets can be made on individual numbers, small groups of numbers, or odd and even. Players must wait until the croupier clears the table to place their chips.
Origins
Although it is hard to pin down the exact origins of roullete, most believe that the game was invented by French mathematician Blaise Pascal while he was trying to develop a perpetual motion machine in the 17th century. He may have failed in his quest, but he did come up with the idea of a roulette wheel.
Various other games have also been thought to be precursors to roullete, including the English game of roly poly and the Italian board game of biribi. The word ‘roulette’ means little wheel in French, which further supports the belief that roulette originated in Europe.
The earliest known mention of the game dates back to the 1700s, when it was popular among the upper class in Paris. It is believed that the game made its way to America as more and more European immigrants settled there.