History of Roulette
The primitive form of roulette was apparently discovered by French scientist Blasé Pascal, who was the first individual around the1650's to devise a wheel mechanism similar to roulette while studying perpetual motion (movement that goes on forever).
Modern Roulette
The roulette wheel that is now used in modern times is believed to be a fusion of the English wheel game Roly-Poly developed in 1920’s involving a ball spinning around the outer edge of a bowl which was rotating in the opposite direction and as the spinning slowed the ball would fall into one of the pockets, Ace of Hearts, along with the Italian board games of Hoca and Biribi, and "Roulette" from an already existing French board game of that name.
In favour of the casino?
This version of Roulette gradually developed itself over a century or so into the current game we know today, which was being played in French casinos even before the eighteenth century. Initially in its crude form European roulette actually featured the single and double zero pockets, then this version of the game was introduced to the U.S. where they tinkered with the game further to increase the house edge even more. In the modified form, there were lesser numbers going from 1- 28 and also featured addition of an Eagle pocket. As per the complexity and stipulations involved, the odds were massively in flavor of the casino and the game quickly lost its appeal to players.
The zero roulette wheel
Way back in the 1843 in Europe, brothers Francois and Louis Blanc introduced the first single zero roulette wheel offering the traditional wheel with single and double zero house pockets and this really catapulted the popularity of the game as it lowered the casinos edge to just 2.7%. As a result King Charles III of Monaco invited Louis Blanc and his roulette wheel to be part of his ground breaking casino in which roulette was to be one of the most popular games!
Number of the beast!
There are many other interesting historical facts associated with Roulette as a legend suggests that François Blanc supposedly bargained with the devil to obtain the secrets of roulette, which is basically based on the fact that the sum of all the numbers i.e. from 1 to 36, on the roulette wheel is 666, which is the "Number of the Beast!"
Technological advancements
As the technology progressed way roulette has been introduced directly into the homes of millions of people via TV satellite stations sometimes featuring roulette shows, which typically show a spinning wheel and people can place there bets over the phone and then watch the TV to see in which pocket the balls ends up! In recent times even games like Roulette and Poker are gaining widespread popularity online and even over mobile phones. The famous iPhone 3G launched facility to play poker online and is now planning to launch a similar facility for playing Roulette as well!