The bold roulette wheel and gaming table are the eye-catchers of every brick-and-mortar casino and at the same time places where many players gather. In modern times, gambling has mostly moved to the internet, but the popularity of roulette has still remained the same. It is actively played in numerous online casinos, where several video and live versions are available.
The popularity of roulette is guaranteed by its fairly easy rules, exciting gameplay based on luck and good chances of winning if you choose the betting options correctly. In addition, today you can even get special bonuses for roulette at some online casinos. Roulette is preferred by players with all kinds of budgets and experience.
While playing roulette, you may have wondered where roulette started and how it ended up in the selection of current online casinos. The history of roulette is very interesting and rich in stages. In addition to the history, in this article, you will learn why there are so many different variations of roulette and how they differ from each other.
Who invented roulette?
The common prevailing opinion about the inventor of roulette is that the French mathematician Blaise Pascal from the 17th century is behind the game. This claim was later found to be false, although Pascal’s research on the probabilities of wheel columns has been used as the basis of roulette.
However, it is difficult to find the inventor of the first roulette, as the game has been formed as a fusion of many similar games of chance. Already in ancient Greek and Roman times, a game similar to the Wheel of Fortune was played, where a chariot wheel was used as a wheel of fortune and a bet was made on which column the wheel’s pointer stopped on.
In the 16th century, it developed into the Southern European la grille, where the wheel was lifted up. This game became entertainment for the masses. The most notable precursor has been the 18th-century biribissi, where bets were placed on a square board with 70 different columns. It also had several other similarities to modern roulette, such as even and odd numbers.
The Italian Hoca brought the current roulette wheel to the game and the English Roly-poly was the first game where a ball was thrown inside a rotating wheel. Roulette developed some time during the 18th century. Later in 1843, the French brothers Françoise and Louis Blanc removed one zero from the already-invented roulette.
American roulette
European immigrants played a significant role in spreading roulette around the world. The game arrived in the United States with immigrants in the 19th century. It immediately became a popular game, especially among pioneers. On their journey, it spread all the way from New Orleans to Mississippi and from there west again.
The 19th century was the era of the Wild West and especially saloons in the history of the United States when cheating was common both on behalf of the players and the house. The first American versions of roulette included the numbers one to 28, plus zero and double zero. An eagle symbolizing freedom was seen on the bike next to the zeros.
However, three “empty” columns reduced the interest in the game, because the chances of winning were lower. Thus, the eagle was removed from the wheel and the popularity of the version with two zero columns replaced all other variations. The version is still called American roulette.
However, in modern American roulette, the wheel has numbers from one to 36, as well as zero and double. Because of the two zeros, the game’s house edge is higher than in European roulette. The American Roulette house edge is 5.26%.
European roulette
European roulette is better known as universal roulette. The French Françoise Blanc is considered to be its master, who with her brother Louis removed the second roulette wheel from zero. They also modified the look of the game to what it is today.
This version started to be played in casinos owned by Blancie in Europe and became a great success. The popularity was mainly due to the game’s new and significantly better winning probability – removing one zero dropped the house edge to 2.7 percent.
The European version therefore contains only one zero on the roulette wheel and next to it the numbers from one to 36. In addition to European roulette, today there is also French roulette, which, in addition to the general rules, also has En prison and La partage rules.
Roulette is moving into the digital age
Roulette has been actively played around the world for centuries. Thus, it was also among the first games in online casinos. In 1998, you could play roulette online on a site called InterCasino, but just ten years later you could already find it on hundreds of gambling sites.
Today, there is hardly an online casino where roulette is not available. Every online roulette contains a random number generator, which makes playing always fair. When the outcome of the round is completely random, it is impossible to cheat in an online game.
At the same time, online gaming has created a completely new wave of variations. Nowadays, roulette can be played with, for example, most wheels, side bets and bonus games. The game is also available in a live version, where the game is played via a video image in the company of a real dealer.
Play roulette today
Although the atmosphere of roulette is at its best in brick-and-mortar casinos, it is still the easiest to find online these days. You can, for example, immediately go to the online casino of your choice and start playing roulette if you have funds in your game account.
If you just want to try playing roulette, a free demo version is also available for each roulette variation. In this case, the game loads play money into your cash register, which you can use to practice placing bets and familiarize yourself with roulette’s winning possibilities.
In roulette, the most important strategy is to choose the right bet. The betting areas divided into outdoor and indoor betting offer both their pluses and minuses. Outside bets are on larger groups of numbers, while inside bets are on small groups of one, two, three or four numbers.
Betting on bets with more numbers means better chances of winning, but the winnings are then smaller. With inside bets, i.e. bets on the number field, you win less often, but the profits you get from them are better. Balancing between the two is always your responsibility.
