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Roulette is often referred to as ‘the King of Casino Games.’ This nickname is justified as Roulette is present in any casino in any country across the globe. The game of Roulette originated in 18th century France, and it instantly gained recognition among gamblers, remaining one of the most popular and wide-spread gambling games in both traditional and online casinos up to this very day.
History
We don’t know who invented Roulette. Some sources claim that Blaise Pascal, a renowned mathematician, attempted to build a perpetual motion mechanism in the 17th century and incidentally engineered a primitive Roulette wheel. Although he did not succeed with creating perpetual motion, Pascal gave another gift to the mankind, and it was one of the most popular gambling games in history. In 1796 France saw the growth of the game’s popularity, although the first official record of playing Roulette is traced back to the 18th century. For example, in 1758 in Quebec Roulette was already banned along with other gambling games.
By the end of the 18thRoulette had already reigned in Parisian casinos. In 1843 in the German town of Homburg, Germany, two Frenchmen brothers, François and Louis Blanc, introduced Roulette with a zero, which was essentially modern-style Roulette. At the very end of the 19th century, roulette reached the United States. There, a special form of the gambling device came about, it has a zero, a double zero and an American Eagle slot. The Eagle slot gave the house certain advantages over the players. Some, albeit not many, Roulettes with the Eagle Slot have survived until today.
The establishment of Monte Carlo as one of the major gambling capitals in Europe to a substantial extent became possible thanks to the popularity of Roulette. In 1860s, when German authorities outlawed gambling, the Blanc brothers relocated to Monte Carlo, transforming the previously unknown, small town into the gambling Mecca of the European elite. It was in Monte Carlo that Roulette with a zero became the most popular casino game in Europe, eventually spreading throughout the world (for many years the US remained practically the only country where the prevailing version of Roulette was the Double Zero Roulette).
The legend has it that François Blanc traded his soul to the devil to ensure that his game becomes truly popular. The origin of the legend had to do with the fact that the sum of the numbers displayed on the Roulette wheel (1 to 36) is the ’Number of the Beast,’ 666. It is for this reason that Roulette is sometimes called the ‘devil’s wheel.’ Whatever the case may be, today Roulette can be played in hundreds of traditional casinos around the world and numerous online casinos. Therefore, it still deserves its title, ‘the King of Casino Games.’
General principles
The concept of Roulette is extremely simple. The croupier, who leads the game, spins the wheel and spins the ball in the opposite direction. At least three circles before the ball stops, the croupier announces that no more bets will be taken. Gradually slowing down, the ball drops in a numbered pocket, and the croupier calls out the winning number, collects the losing bets and pays off the lucky winners.
The modern Roulette has alternating black and red pockets numbered 1 through 36 and a green zero pocket. The number of green pockets depends on the type of the game played: while in traditional European Roulette there is only one of these, there are two of them – a zero and a double zero – in American Roulette. While the concept of the game is identical both in European and American Roulettes, betting rules do differ. For example, in American Roulette a player can bet on a combination of five specific numbers: 0, 00, 1, 2, and 3.
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Rules
The rules of playing Roulette are very simple. A player makes a bet and then waits on the results of spinning the wheel. The player’s task is to guess which pocket the ball will drop in.
The main betting options in Roulette are as follows:
- Red or Black. Number of spaces: 18. Payout: 1 to 1.
- Odd or Even. Number of spaces: 18. Payout: 1 to 1.
- Low Number Bet (1 to 18) or High Number Bet (19 to 36). Number of spaces: 18. Payout: 1 to 1.
- Column or Dozen. Number of spaces: 12. Payout: 2 to 1.
- Six Line. Number of spaces: 6. Payout: 5 to 1.
- Corner (or Square). Number of spaces: 4. Payout: 8 to 1.
- Street. Number of spaces: 3. Payout: 11 to 1.
- Split. Number of spaces: 2. Payout: 17 to 1.
- Straight Up. Number of spaces: 1. Payout: 35 to 1.
Some variations of the Roulette game include a special rule, ‘La Partage.’ Under this rule, if a the ball drops in the zero pocket, players lose one half of their bets, while the other half remains in the game for one more round. The idea behind this rule is to reduce the casino’s edge on some bets (as a result it goes all the way to 1.35%), providing an additional incentive for players to bet.
