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Roulette is one of the oldest and most popular casino games in the world. Its name comes from the French word for “little wheel.” The game exists in three main variations – French Roulette, European Roulette, and American Roulette. While the basic rules remain the same, there are significant differences in the house edge between these versions.
In Roulette, players place bets on a single number, a range of numbers, or the colors red or black. Numbers can be odd, even, high (19–36), or low (1–18). To determine the winning color or number, the dealer spins the wheel in one direction and then spins a small ball in the opposite direction along the outer rim. As the ball loses momentum, it passes the deflectors and falls into one of the numbered and colored pockets – 38 pockets in American Roulette, or 37 pockets in French and European Roulette.
There are several theories about the origin of Roulette. The most popular claims that it was invented in the 17th century by Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician and inventor. Many historians believe that in 1655, while searching for a perpetual motion machine, Pascal created a primitive form of the Roulette wheel.
Another theory suggests that Roulette is based on the Sho game, a traditional Chinese game in which 37 animal figurines were arranged into a magic square totaling 666. Dominican monks, fascinated by Chinese culture, allegedly brought the game from China through Tibet to France, modifying it by replacing the animal figurines with numbers and transforming the square into a circle containing the numbers 0 to 36.
A third theory dates Roulette back to the Greco-Roman era, when Roman and Greek soldiers played a game involving the spinning of a chariot wheel or shield. On the ground were ten marked sections and an arrow pointing toward them. The basic concept mirrored modern Roulette: when the spinning object stopped, the section opposite the arrow was declared the winner.
Although Roulette is unique in its own right, historians believe that many of its features were adapted from other popular games of the time. The modern version is thought to be a combination of English wheel games and Georgian favorites such as Ace of Hearts, Reiner, Roly Poly, and Even-Odd, as well as two Italian games – Hoca and Biribi.
Roulette has been played in its modern form since 1796 in Paris. The earliest written reference to people playing the game for real money appears in the French novel La Roulette, ou le jour by Jaques Lablée, published in 1801. The book describes a wheel being spun at the Palais Royal, detailing its layout with two house pockets: a single zero and a double zero.
In the late 1790s, Roulette wheels in Parisian casinos featured black for the double zero and red for the single zero. In 1843, François and Louis Blanc opened a casino in Bad Homburg with a wheel containing only a single zero – a strategic move to set their venue apart from competitors still using the traditional double-zero wheel.
In the early 20th century, only two famous gambling cities offered Roulette – Monte Carlo, featuring the single-zero wheel, and Las Vegas, using the double-zero wheel. In the 1970s, casinos spread rapidly across the globe, and within three decades, Roulette became a staple game in gaming establishments worldwide.
Today, alongside land-based casinos, there are hundreds of online casinos offering various versions of Roulette. A major attraction is live Roulette, where players can interact with real dealers and other players in real time. One of the oldest and most popular online casinos in Germany is Casino Club, founded over 15 years ago and online since 2001, offering multiple Roulette variants.
Our Tip: If you want to familiarize yourself with the Roulette table and its different variations, you can try them online for free. Many online casinos offer attractive welcome bonuses, allowing new players to boost their deposits with free credits. The Wildz Casino Bonus even provides 200 free spins on top of that – a perfect way to explore the game.
Roulette is far from extinct on today’s consoles. The game Vegas Party on the Nintendo Switch puts you right in the middle of the world of Las Vegas City. The Playstation 4 also lets you bring the casino experience back into your living room with The Four Kings Casino and Slots.