Although it’s a game that seems to really have come into popularity in the last two decades, the variation has likely been around since people began using credit cards regularly (the first card was Diners Club in 1950). For instance, on June 8, 1960, The Morning Herald in Uniontown, Pa., ran an amusing item in a society column, referring to a resident named Jerry Ossip, who invented a fun game he apparently tried to play with his waiter, which he called “credit card roulette.” The customer would offer the waiter six credit cards, one of which had been cancelled.
Not surprisingly, this version of the game never caught on.