Most of us are familiar with the game of Roulette. The wheel goes round and round. The marble eventually settles into a number, and most of us hand over our money to the casino when it turns out that we have lost. Where did this game come from though?

The name itself is quite obviously French. In the French language the word "Roulette" means "small wheel". This tells us that the French have a very good grip on the obvious, but doesn't really say that much about the origin of the game. There are actually a few interesting legends about how the game of roulette came to be.

One of the earliest legends surrounds French mathematician Blaise Pascal. He is known best for inventing a calculating machine in 1642. One of his life's ambitions was to create a perpetual motion machine. In his attempts to invent such a machine, he engineered a device in a form of a big wheel for his experiments. One of his friends had a good idea to use this device for gambling.

Another story about the discovery of this game tells about Francois Blanc who founded the first casinos in Monte Carlo. According to myth, he sold a soul to devil for the secret of roulette. This may or may not be true, but if you add all the number on a roulette wheel together the total sum is 666.

Roulette in the form we recognize today came about 1765 in Paris. It was brought to the United States by French and was part of the first American casino in New Orleans in 1800.