Roulette is a game of chance. It involves a spinning wheel with pockets numbered from 1-36 (in a non-American roulette) coloured alternatively red and black, along with a 0 (or 00 in American roulette).
Players place chips on a betting mat before the dealer spins the wheel. They can continue to make bets until the croupier announces ‘no more bets’.
Origins
Despite the game’s popularity, it is unclear where the name “roulette” actually comes from. Several fanciful theories exist, including that it was invented by the 17th century French mathematician Blaise Pascal as a result of his experiment with creating a perpetual motion machine or that it evolved from the Italian board game biribi.
Other anecdotal histories suggest that roulette may have started with a carnival game featuring a wheel found in traveling circus acts during the 1500s. This game is thought to have been a precursor to other games of chance such as hoca and portique, which were both popular in France at the time.
When gambling was legalized in 1860, the Blanc brothers introduced the single-zero roulette game that is known today. This replaced the double-zero roulette wheel in Europe, and as more Europeans moved to America, this variant made its way over too. Today, roulette is one of the most popular casino games around the world.