Roulette is one of the easiest casino games to play. All you need is a wheel, a ball and a bet. The odds of winning depend on luck, but skill is also required.

To get started, buy a roulette chip from the dealer. He or she will ask what denomination you want to designate for each chip and give you coloured chips that correspond to that value.

Origin

There are several different stories about the origin of roulette. Some believe it was invented by the 17th century French mathematician Blaise Pascal in his quest to create a perpetual motion machine. Others claim it was derived from the Italian board game biribi, which is similar to roulette in that bets are placed on a layout of numbered squares to see which one will be randomly selected. Still others think that it evolved from the French games hoca and portique, which were popular in casinos and gambling houses.

Whatever the true story, roulette was widely played in Europe by the time it arrived in America. Interestingly, the first American roulette wheels had two zeros like in France, not the single-zero version that is familiar today.