Although European roulette came first, it is the American roulette style that has the longer pedigree.
Exactly when people first began wagering over the spin of a wheel is anybodies guess but the first roulette-like games appeared in Europe during the 1700s. The early games may have come from various sources including the Far East where the Chinese taught European traders original games that may have been the harbingers of roulette.
By the end of the 18th century Parisian casinos were offering a standardized roulette and gamblers flocked to place bets on the spinning wheel. Original roulette wheels had the numbers from 1 to 36 and two zeros allowing for 38 possible outcomes. The game was a crowd puller and the cream of European society could be found around the felt tables as huge sums of money were made or lost. The game spread across the Atlantic and US gamblers caught the roulette craze.
During the 1800s another version of roulette gained popularity in Europe. Rather than two zeros the new European roulette game had only one, giving just 37 possible outcomes. This small but significant change increased the winning odds of the player and understandably became very popular eventually ousting its predecessor. At about that time Monte Carlo became a casino hotspot and its gambling houses offered the new version of roulette. The fame of Monte Carlo helped boost the new European roulette and the 37-slot wheel eventually became the standard in Europe.
However, the original form of the game survived in America where casinos preferred to keep the odds just the way they had always been. Casinos continued to play with a 38-slot wheel and this eventually became known as American roulette. The arrangement has remained to this day and if you enter US casino then American roulette is most likely the game you will find.
For those in doubt, it easy to tell which style of roulette is being played at a table. European roulette tables mark numbers on the table with the same colors as they are found on the wheel itself whereas at an American roulette table all the numbers are printed in the same color on the green table. Failing that – or if playing on an online casino - just look at the number of zeros available – it’s a dead giveaway!
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 4:44 am and is filed under History of casino games.
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