Roulette is a thrilling part of many casino adventures, from romantic date nights to solo gambling excursions. Before each spin, players place their chips on a green felt table. Each player has a different color of chip, and the value of each is determined by the amount they pay for their stack(s). All chips are redeemed before leaving the roulette table.
Variations
Roulette has a lot of variations that offer players distinct gameplay. Some of these include Double Ball Roulette, which offers lower payouts, Lighting Roulette from Evolution Gaming, with multipliers, and Triple Bonus Spin Roulette from IGT, that pays 1:12,000 for a straight bonus win. The most common variant is European Roulette, which uses a 37-segment wheel with black and red numbers that are distributed randomly. This game has a house edge of 2.7%. Other variations include American Roulette, which features a double-zero wheel, and Double Ball Roulette.
Origins
The game of roulette is generally regarded to be of French origin, but the exact origins of this popular gambling game are unknown. Many websites that provide a summary history of roulette cite supposed ancestors including portique, hoca, bassette and even-odd as well as the roly poly. All of these games have one thing in common, a rotating wheel.
A fanciful story claims that the first true version of the game came from Blaise Pascal, a 17th Century French mathematician. He reportedly conceived of the roulette wheel while trying to build a perpetual motion machine. However, the truth is probably a lot more mundane. It’s likely that the game evolved from older games such as hoca and portique, which had existed for centuries. It then gained popularity throughout Europe, and it wasn’t long before it made its way to America. The American variant essentially took the European game to the next level by getting rid of the double zero.
