An early description of the roulette game in its current form is found in a French novel La Roulette, ou le Jour by Jaques Lablee, which describes a roulette wheel in the Palais Royal in Paris in 1796. The game has been played in its present form since as early as 1796 in Paris. A primitive form of roulette, known as 'EO' (Even/Odd), was played in England in the late 18th century using a gaming wheel similar to that used in roulette. The roulette mechanism is a hybrid of a gaming wheel invented in 1720 and the Italian game Biribi. Many historians believe Blaise Pascal introduced a primitive form of roulette in the 17th century in his search for a perpetual motion machine.

The first form of roulette was devised in 18th-century France. The winnings are then paid to anyone who has placed a successful bet. The ball eventually loses momentum, passes through an area of deflectors, and falls onto the wheel and into one of thirty-seven (single-zero, French or European style roulette) or thirty-eight (double-zero, American style roulette) or thirty-nine (triple-zero, 'Sands Roulette') colored and numbered pockets on the wheel. To determine the winning number, a croupier spins a wheel in one direction, then spins a ball in the opposite direction around a tilted circular track running around the outer edge of the wheel. In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various groupings of numbers, the color red or black, whether the number is odd or even, or if the numbers are high (19–36) or low (1–18). Roulette (named after the French word meaning 'little wheel') is a casino game which was likely developed from the Italian game Biribi. Roulette ball 'Gwendolen at the roulette table' – 1910 illustration to George Eliot's ' Daniel Deronda'. For other uses, see Roulette (disambiguation).

Payout for betting on green roulette