The French word Roulette means ''a small wheel', which was invented in 1655 by a Scientist named Blaise Pascal who known all over for his contributions in probability. Roulette was first played to get rid of boredom in the monasteries, but it soon became a popular game of casinos in the city of Paris.
The first casino was established at Monte Carlo by Luis Blanc and Francois in the year 1842. As per 'legend', it was believed that the devil revealed the secrets of Roulette in return of their souls.
Going by this evil historical interpretation, there were 2 men who selected numbers between 0 and 36 in such a way that their sum becomes 666, which represented the beast. Obviously, one cannot justify these stories, but this game was always considered to be surrounded by the supernatural aura.
With alternate stripes of colors along with odd or even numbers, the modern wheel of Roulette was used all over France too. Later on, Roulette was brought in US in the beginning of 1800. This game was quite popular amongst those people who made the living by believing in destiny, superstition and patience. During historical period of Gold Rush, Roulette became quite famous in the USA, especially within the west after it was embraced by the gold speculators and western miners.
The history of Roulette was changed forever when the modification of single ''0'' was not accepted in the US. And ''00' became the standard for the Roulette wheels in America. However, the American casinos were quite unhappy as they had very small house edge with the European wheels. Therefore, a 31-pocket wheel was introduced in Roulette to increase a house edge with the help of the extra pockets favoring the house. So, if you are given an option, always go with the European wheel.
Though both the single and double 0 wheels were from France, the wheel with double zero ''00'' was known as ''American Wheel'' as it was approved in the US whole heartedly. The wheels with single zero became quite popular in Europe as compared to the 00 wheels and hence, it came to be known as ''French Wheel''. Today, Roulette wheel can be easily found in every casino of the world. Roulette is quite simple to play & involves too much of suspense when its ball 35:1 and stops on the number, which can get you a payoff as high as 35:1.