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American Roulette & European Roulette Explained on Slotland
Though Roulette originated in 16th century France, it quickly caught on in the Americas as a glamorous and exciting game of chance. The Old World version is known as European roulette, which is the most famous and well known version played today. American Roulette originated much later and has minor differences compared to its European cousin. Slotland Casino offers online roulette and online poker as well.
The European game has as its central character a wheel, upon which the croupier or dealers ball is thrown, and a table, where bets are placed by all the players. Numbers are engraved into the perimeter of the roulette wheel, from 1 to 36, with each number being either red or black. This results in an equal number of blacks and reds, odd and even numbers, as well as high (18-36) and low (1-17) numbers. Apart from 36 numbered slots, there is a single green slot bearing the number zero.
The green slot is also known as the “house number” because it maintains a small house edge against the players. Else, if a player were to wager on “black” or “red”, the odds would be 50/50 that the ball would land on red or black. This would be identical odds to flipping a coin for heads or tails. The single green zero slot adds a 37th slot in the roulette wheel that the ball can land on, making the odds of the ball landing in red or black slightly less than 50/50. Due to the random movement of the ball, if it ends up on the green slot, then all bets on “red” or “black” will lose to the house, or casino. This ensures that the casino always has a 2.70% edge, playing by European roulette rules.
When you play American Roulette, the game is essentially the same as the European version, but for one difference. There is an extra green slot on the wheel, called the “double zero” or “00”. This makes a total of 38 slots that the ball could land on. This nearly doubles the house edge to 5.26% compared to the European version. Players stand to lose more money but they get a faster game.
Theres one more quirk in European roulette strategy. There, players have an option to use the “en prison” rule. This allows a player to either surrender half of his/her “outside” wagers, or to leave them for the next game, if the zero comes up.
When you factor this “Surrender” option, the house advantage drops even lower in European Roulette, taking it to 1.352 percent (from 2.7%), which makes the Old World game even more lucrative for a player, compared to the 5.26% House edge in the United States.
Whether you choose to play American Roulette or play European Roulette, we at Slotland are sure you will enjoy both!
Down Memory Lane with Roulette
Many people credit the brothers Louis and Francois Blanc as the inventors of roulette. The myth goes that they sold their soul to the devil to know the secret of the game. What do they proffer as proof for this theory the sum of the numbers on the roulette wheel is 666. But some people believe that the game started thousands of years ago maybe in Persia or maybe in China. There is no definite history that one can come up with.
But it is generally believed that it was the famous mathematician of France Blaise Pascal who came up with the first form of roulette as he was searching for an ideal machine having perpetual motion. This happened sometime in the 18th century. The reference to roulette was actually found earlier in 1758 in the regulations for Quebec and then in the novel La Roulette, ou le Jou by Jaques Lablee. It was actually in France where the game seems to have originated and then it spread to the other countries of the world.
As far as modern roulette is concerned one must credit Louis and Francois Blanc for their popularity. After they introduced single zero roulette wheel in 1843 in Homburg in Germany they later on moved to Monte Carlo in the 1860s when the German government abolished gambling. It was here in Monte Carlo where the game caught like wildfire and started attracting some of the most famous names worldwide who came to play in the casinos here.
The popularity of roulette in the United States of America moved up the River Mississippi. The French version became popular first but the American roulette wheel suddenly had three extra slots one for single zero, one for double zero and for the American Eagle. While the eagle disappeared after sometime the slots for single zero and double zero stayed. This wheel continues to be used in the USA even today while Europe continues to use the roulette wheel with just a single zero.
The name roulette comes from French for “little wheel”. From the time it was introduced as a casino game it became immensely popular and remains one of the most popular casino games even today. Whether you go to Monte Carlo or Las Vegas you will find the most number of gamblers around the roulette table. And till the time people continue to gamble roulette will remain the game of choice worldwide.