The origin of Roulette remains unclear. One theory attributes the creation of
Roulette to Blaise Pascal, a 17th Century French mathematician, while others
claim that the game was invented in China and brought to Europe by Dominican
monks. In any case, the term 'Roulette' comes from the French word meaning
'small wheel'.
The modern version of Roulette was created by Francois and Louis Blanc, two
Frenchmen who invented the single '0' Roulette game in 1842. In America, the
single '0' game was rejected and replaced with the '00' game, which gained
immense popularity during the California Gold Rush. As a result, the two
different wheels have been called the American Wheel and the French Wheel and
can still be found today in casinos around the world.
