The casino industry is almost as old as time itself. The histories of all major civilizations are replete with stories or drawings of gambling as an accepted social practice. The Chinese, who have gambled for over 5,000 years, were probably not the inventors of gambling, but they left one of the earliest written records. The Bible chronicles gambling in the part of the world we now call the Middle East. In their exploration of the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark found indigenous people enjoying a game similar to roulette, which was believed to have been invented in France.