The History of Roulette Games

Roulette as we know it is a rather new addition to the games available at casinos.  Games that utilized the wheel have been around for a very long time (likely developed not long after the roulette wheel itself was invented), but the first game that players would recognize as Roulette wasn’t offered at casinos until the 17th century.  The European Roulette wheel (the single zero roulette wheel) was developed in 1842 by Louis and Francois Blanc.

In France gambling was against the law so the developers of Roulette, Louis and Francois Blanc moved to Germany there the game became popular.  As soon as Germany also outlawed gambling Louis Blanc moved to Monaco accepting a request to go there and construct and run a casino.  The resulting casino turned out so well that it enabled Monaco to set the standards for Roulette for all of Europe.

The wheel hasn’t changed much since its introduction.  One change was the introduction of the color green to the double zero and zero.  Originally the double zero space was black and the zero space was red, but it was found to be confusing to players so to remove the confusion the color green was added.

A further change to roulette was established in Europe after the “En Prison” alternative was introduced.  When playing on a European roulette wheel and a zero is the winning digit players who wagered on even-money have two alternatives: the player can take back one half of the original wager, or they can make the “En Prison” alternative.  When En Prison option is selected the wager is set aside until the next spin of the roulette wheel.  In the event that the bet wins the players have their funds returned (less the usual payoff) if not the cash is lost.  If a zero is the winning digit yet again the cash is once more placed aside awaiting the next spin of the wheel.

Once the wealthy and famous people of Europe began to patronize the casino at Monte Carlo the game of Roulette became very attractive.  With the elegant casino, the rich and well-known dressed in formal attire and all of them with very large quantities of cash to bet, the stage was set.  All of this was responsible for the launching of Roulette as the worlds most familiar casino game.

The normal Roulette wheel in The U.S. has become the double zero wheel.  The double zero roulette wheel is often called the “American wheel”.  The double zero wheel was well-liked in Americas old west especially in the California gold rush period.

In Europe Roulette gambling is a lot more popular than it is in the U.S.  United States casinos only earn 5% of their earnings from the game of roulette while casinos in Europe earn 50% of their revenues from Roulette.  The disparity between the popularity of the game of roulette in the U.S. and European casinos is that European casinos use a single zero wheel and offer the En Prison choice while in the United States the casinos use a double zero wheel and do not offer the En Prison alternative (the house edge is 1.35% in European casinos but 5.26% in the United States).