Roulette may have been invented or improved upon in the mid l7th Century by a French scientist, Blaise Pascal during a "monastic retreat" and played for the first time in a Paris casino. Others have theorized a French monk created the game to relieve the boredom of a monastic life. The pockets in which the ball lands are all the same size and the pocket partitions are of the same height. The fact that the center and the ball travel in different directions, makes it almost impossible to control the outcome. The ball bounces over various obstacles, depending on the specific wheel design, which further guarantees random selection.