Historians differ on the origins of Roulette. One school of thought believes Roulette may not be quite as old as the invention of the wheel, but it comes close: the ancient Greeks and Romans played a game of chance using the revolving wheel of an overturned chariot. The symbol of the wheel of fate can be found in art from the Chinese, Aztec Indians, and American Innuits. Some of the art depicts a vertical wheel surrounded by horizontal worshippers.

The second school of though believes Roulette has a French origin. Its said that monks, bored by the drudgery of their daily lives in the monastery, put their praying hands together and created Roulette. Their hands marked off sections of a cartwheel, and wagered, using comestibles to place bets as to where the wheel would come to a stop. Evidence supports the game's existence, beginning in the eighteenth century, in various forms throughout Asia and the Western Hemisphere.

Roulette, upon its introduction to American casinos at the turn of the twentieth century, used a wheel with a total of 30 numbers ranging from 1 to 27, alternating in red and black, as well as a 0, 00, and an eagle or an American flag.

European casinos originally used a wheel with 36 numbers and a 0 and 00. Bets on any of the number spaces were paid off as 34-1 odds. In the 1860s, Monte Carlo switched to a wheel with only the single 0, paying off straight bets at 35-1