Evolution of Roulette

Roulette is the ultimate game of chance. It has been around for many years, with forms of the game being found to have taken place as far back as ancient Roman times, when soldiers would spin swords and shields and place bets on the outcome. In the modern day, Roulette is available to play in many forms, from the comfort of your own home, and remains one of the most popular casino games of all time.

With the ability to spin the Roulette wheel whenever you fancy in mind, let’s take a look at how the game has evolved to become as accessible as it is today! Read on to find out more.

A brief history

The Roulette wheel, as we know it, was actually created by accident. In the 17^th century, French scientist and mathematician Blaise Pascal attempted to defy physics and create a perpetual motion machine. Naturally, this failed, but as an avid gambler he was able to utilise his creation and pioneer the first form of the Roulette wheel.

It was in 1843, however, when the game of Roulette really gained traction. French brothers Francois and Louis Blanc took it upon themselves to help struggling casinos bring in more customers. They started in Hamburg, Germany, where they introduced a version of the Roulette wheel with just a single zero pocket, rather than both the single zero and double zero pockets. This lowered the house edge from 5.26% to 2.70%, making this version of the game more popular than ever.

The Roulette wheels

You might have figured out that it was Francois and Louis Blanc’s version of the Roulette wheel that later became known as European Roulette, but it didn’t get this name until it was taken overseas to American shores. In America, both casinos and gamers alike preferred higher stakes, and games that made players feel as though they had a greater sense of control, like Blackjack, were generally favoured. Due to this, most American casinos adopted the version of Roulette with both a single zero and a double zero pocket, and so this version went on to be known as American Roulette, whilst the other – European Roulette.

These two wheels are the basis for all variations of the game of Roulette. For example, French Roulette, despite including some additional rules that can further lower the house edge, is based upon the European wheel.

Online Roulette

In the late 1990s, when online casinos began to burst onto the scene, and even more people were gaining access to the internet, playing an online Roulette game seemed to be the next best thing. With virtual Roulette, a Random Number Generator (RNG) creates a random combination of numbers, letters and symbols every single second, to create an unpredictable outcome. This keeps gameplay fair, and is used in the background of many of your favourite online casino games, including Roulette.

As technology has progressed, Roulette has evolved to cater for the masses, with each variation available to play, both in most land-based casinos, and from the comfort of your very own home.

A look to the future

As we take a look into what the future might hold for the game of Roulette, we can see that it’s already withstood the test of time. In fact, Roulette is already available to play live, with the help of live casino gaming. The live casino offers a futuristic gameplay experience, in real time, streamed from a specialist studio and directly to any device, hosted by a professional real-life human dealer in real time.

Themed games such as Football Roulette, for example, show that the game can adapt and continue to evolve for players to enjoy over and over again, and some live casino games have even ventured out to explore the capabilities of Virtual Reality (VR) gaming. Will Roulette be next?