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.