Roulette is French for "little wheel." In fact, the little roulette wheel — the veritable symbol today of casino gambling — was invented by the great French scientist and mathematician Blaise Pascal back in the 17th century.

Many of the fruits of Pascal's genius, from Pascal's triangle to his theory of atmospheric pressure, are still taught in classrooms today. But surely none is a popular as his roulette wheel. The roulette wheel was actually a byproduct of Pascal's search for perpetual motion. Pascal would spin the wheel in one direction, and send a little ball spinning in the opposite direction. The wheel originally had 36 numbered pockets; the pocket in which the ball eventually came to rest became the winning number.

The next big step in Roulette history took place about two hundred years after Pascal's great invention. In 1842, two clever Frenchmen — the brothers Francois and Louis Blanc — added a zero to the roulette wheel. There is a legend that the brothers Blanc struck a deal with the devil to discover the true secrets of the roulette game. The legend tells that if one adds up all of the numbers from 0 to36, the total is 666, which is also the sign of the devil beast. So if a player wins against the wheel, i.e. his number comes up, then he is literally beating the devil.

At the time that the François and Louis Blanc made the addition to the Roulette wheel of the 0, gambling had actually been banned in France. This did not stop the wheel's popularity from spreading across Europe. When legalized gambling was reinstated in France in the late 1800's, Francois Blanc was invited to set up the first of the famous casinos in Monte Carlo. He used the Roulette wheel as the flagship game for this casino and since then the picture of the Roulette wheel has always been associated with casinos. Roulette to this day is known as the "King of the Casino Games," mainly from its early popularity at the Monte Carlo casino.

As gambling became reinstated in France, the games that were popular in France traveled across the ocean to America. In America, saloons or gambling houses were very keen on making money for their own establishments. As a result the Americans introduced the double zero (00) to the Roulette wheel. A wheel with a double zero became known as the American Roulette. The introduction of the double zero was not popular with the Europeans. The original Roulette wheel with the single zero became known and established as the European wheel.

The online casino boom of the 1990's brought with it the development of online Roulette games into a more widely played game. Many people who had not previously played Roulette now started to play Roulette online. This was mainly due to its increased accessibility, and also the conscious decision of the online casinos to lower the betting minimums, which offers a totally different strategy than the land-based casinos. This encouraged more online players to try their luck at Roulette. Roulette features in one form or another at most online casinos.

Different types of Roulette games have developed over the years and these are also featured at the online casinos. There is American Roulette which has the additional 00, giving an additional pocket and some believe better house odds. There is French Roulette which has the La Partage rule; allowing only half of the bet to be taken from the player if the ball lands on zero when an even-money bet has been placed. French Roulette also has call bets which allows the player to place multiple bets with multiple coins at any one time. There is European Roulette which only has one zero on the wheel and is the closest to the original Roulette game as developed by Pascal. There is Roulette Royale which gives an additional Progressive Jackpot put together by the casino and the players.

Roulette has developed and diversified greatly from its humble beginnings as an invention to test perpetual motion. And over the years it has become a widely known and recognized game and symbol of high-class casino gambling. Roulette has always been associated with the French, which naturally brings its association with style. It is a game of chance played with a spinning wheel but also a game of style and passion and is played today in the same way as it was all those years ago in Monte Carlo. Roulette has developed over the past three hundred years of its existence and it will continue to flourish and develop in the future. With such a rich history, Roulette is bound to carry on being the “King of the Casino.”