Roulette is a game of chance played on a table with a spinning wheel and one or two green pockets. A small ball is spun around the wheel and the winning number is determined when it stops.
There are many variations of the game, but most casinos offer European Roulette, which has a single zero (or 00). There is also a French version that uses a “la partage” rule, which lowers the house edge to 1.35%.
Origins
There are a number of theories regarding the origins of roulette. One is that it was invented by the 17th-century French mathematician Blaise Pascal as a result of his work on perpetual motion machines. Another is that it was derived from other games such as hoca and portique, which had been around for a while and were often played at carnivals. Finally, some believe that it was developed by the Blanc brothers in order to attract more customers to their casino.
Despite these theories, it is likely that roulette was created spontaneously from other similar gambling games. The fact that a wheel is used to determine the winner is common to these games and may date back as far as Roman times, when soldiers would spin shields with symbols on them balanced on sword points.