The history of gambling games runs the gamut from legend to myth to fairytale to folklore to historical fiction…with, possibly, a bit of truth thrown in.

Because gambling has been around for centuries (a “fact” no one seems to dispute), once you go back hundreds of years to unearth roots and origins, the information is bound to get a little murky and the line between truth and fiction is inevitably going to be crossed a few times. Nonetheless, this only makes for vibrant and dynamic storytelling as befits a pastime that is more than a little colorful itself.

The game of roulette is a case in point. Some gambling historians claim that the game originated in ancient Rome when soldiers played by spinning chariot wheels. Others place the roots of the game “firmly” in Tibet. The bottom line is, however, that no one really knows how roulette originated, though conjecturing and hypothesizing is part of the fun. The name itself – roulette – is French and means “small wheel,” which makes it most likely that the game started out in France; the person most frequently associated with its inception is a French scientist/philosopher by the name of Blaise Pascal. While exploring the idea of perpetual motion Pascal supposedly invented the game of roulette, which very quickly moved from the laboratory to the casino.

By the early 18th century a game called RolyPoly made an appearance in England and featured a bouncing ball and a spinning wheel remarkably similar to the current roulette wheel. The betting system used in modern-day roulette was also not unlike those of a game called “Even Odd.” But France remains the true home of roulette and the French brothers, Louis and Francois Blanc, are credited with not only founding the first casino in Monte Carlo but also with creating the standard single-zero roulette wheel still used in Europe today (as opposed to the double-zero wheel used in the U.S.).

The Blanc brothers subsequently introduced their invention to the casinos and gambling halls of first France and then Germany. As gambling became successively prohibited in both those countries, the Blancs were invited to introduce their roulette wheel to that hallowed domain of legalized gambling, Monte Carlo. Some time during the 1860s, the Blancs signed an agreement with Prince Charles III of Monaco giving them permission to design and build a lavish casino in Monte Carlo. This pioneering casino, called the Casino de Monte Carlo, was built with unprecedented opulence and grandeur and was designed to attract the gambling money of the rich and famous, i.e. the European aristocracy of the time.

The Blancs’ version of roulette came to be known as European roulette and it remains Monte Carlo’s premier gambling game. The American version of roulette – never as popular as its European counterpart - uses a double-zero roulette wheel, which significantly lowers the odds for the player (perhaps explaining its lack of a dedicated following). Ironically, this type of roulette wheel is also a French invention, although European roulette is strictly played with a single-zero wheel.

Today, roulette is thought of as the king (or queen) of casino games – it is certainly the reigning monarch of gambling. Roulette – and, specifically, the roulette wheel - is an internationally recognized symbol of affluence and a high-stakes way of life. However, with the growth of Internet gambling, the allure and prestige of roulette is suddenly accessible to everyone. Roulette, the game that never quite caught on in the U.S., is now the hottest game in cyberspace.