How Roulette is Growing Online

By Will Jamieson

Roulette is a game that is almost exclusively the first thing we think about in a casino. Whether it is featured in a movie or just mentioned in a story, we know that familiar wheel with all the red and black pockets – and all the stories that go with it.

Online casinos offer roulette alongside other games like slots, poker, blackjack and bingo – and the popularity of the game online is growing just as fast as other games both online and in mobile apps. From 20p roulette games to the high roller wheels, roulette is still one of the biggest draws in the casino.

The French Invented Roulette

Roulette is a French word, meaning ‘little wheel’, so naturally we have the French to thank for the invention of the game – although that isn’t the whole story.

Many historians believe that Blaise Pascale introduced a primitive form of the roulette wheel in the 17^th Century while trying to devise a perpetual motion machine, but what is clear is that the game we recognise today came from adding a gaming wheel to the Italian game of Biribi in the 18^th Century. A similar game was also being played in England, called E/O or Even/Odd, around the same time.

It wasn’t long before the French nobility made roulette a part of their courtly activities. The wheel used in these courts was mostly the same as the wheels we use today – except the 0 and 00 pockets were also red or black.

As Europeans moved to the newly discovered Americas, they brought many of their games with them – and in the same way that poker developed in a new continent, so too did roulette. American wheels often added an American Eagle to the house numbers of 0 and 00, increasing the house edge and reducing the odds of a win for the players. It wasn’t too long before the betting layout was simplified for the US market – not only to make it easier to play and understand, but also to reduce the risk of cheating and tampering.

Before we look at what roulette is, we should also mention that it was the German’s prohibiting casino gaming in the 1860s that led Francois and Louis Blanc to move their roulette games to Monte Carlo, establishing what has now become something of a gambling mecca.

What is Roulette?

In basic terms, roulette is a game where a numbered wheel is spun in one direction, and a ball is spun in the other direction. Players place bets on where they think the ball will land when it stops.

The wheel has a specific order to its layout. There are alternate red and black pockets that are numbered, with either one or two green pockets that are the ‘house’ numbers. A ball that lands here will lose all players their money and is the way the game pays for itself within the casino.

Playing roulette is actually a great way to get started in the casino, as you can begin with some basic bets which are almost 50/50 – you can choose whether the ball will land on red or black, or on a number that is odd or one that is even. With this in mind, you might be forgiven for thinking that this can’t be too complicated – but there are so many other bets that you can place, each offering different odds and different potential win amounts.

When you place a bet on a roulette spin, you place your chips on what is known as a ‘layout’. This is a grid where all the numbers on the wheel are laid out in a particular way. You can place your chips on one number, cover a group of numbers, or in several different ways depending on what you want to achieve.

Let’s take a look at a few types of bets you can make in roulette

Inside Bets

·         Straight/Single – choose exactly which number you think the ball will land on. This has potentially the longest odds in the game, but pretty much the best payout.

·         Split – two numbers on the layout that are either horizontally or vertically adjacent on the layout.

·         Street – three consecutive numbers in a horizontal line on the layout

·         Corner/Square – four numbers that meet at one corner on the layout

·         Six Line/Double Street – six numbers that are created by two horizontal rows.

Outside Bets

·         Low/High – will the ball land on low numbers (1-18) or high (19-36)

·         Red/Black

·         Odd/Even

·         Dozen – 1-12, 13-24, 25-36

·         Column

Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master

Roulette is growing online because it is simple to get started with but can take many years to master – especially if you are a player that likes to introduce some strategy to your play. It can be played and enjoyed by real beginners as well as professionals.