The more that things change, the more that some classics remain the same. Roulette has earned the right to be considered a true classic among the casino experience. This highly versatile and captivating table game dates back centuries. Many Roulette enthusiasts believe the true origin of this elegant game goes back to ancient Greek and Roman times, with Greek and Roman citizens spinning a crude version of the reels.
However, the common belief and explanation for the dawn of modern-day Roulette dates back to 17th-century France. If you ever wondered who created the Roulette wheel concept, you can thank renowned French scientist and mathematician Blaise Pascal for that honor, including the calculator.
The Rise of the Variants
French Roulette is widely accepted as the oldest Roulette variant. With a favorable house edge of 2.76%, French Roulette supports all of the essential Roulette bets like columns and square bets. Besides the single zero, the French Roulette variant has all the lettering and the Roulette table in French, even at today’s online casinos. The same La Partage, En Prison, and Voisins du Zero rules carry over to online French Roulette.
Besides French Roulette, the European version is the most widely played, including at online casinos. European Roulette plays identically to the French variant. However, the lettering and the playing table are in English. As more online casinos come online, you can expect European Roulette to be the centerpiece.
Of all the main Roulette variants, American Roulette is the one that most Roulette players gravitate towards. American Roulette became prominent as French colonists and settlers introduced French Roulette into the American territories. With the rise of legal casinos in Nevada in the 1930s, American players became instantly hooked on American Roulette. To truly make it their own, the unique double zero was added to make it that much more challenging to experience the unbelievable feeling of winning when the white ball lands on the winning number.
The Rise of Online Casinos
While it didn’t seem like much at the time, the birth of the online casino industry in the mid-1990s would go on to spark a multi-billion dollar industry. Even though traditional casino players had to wait for dial-up modems to load the Flash casino websites and CDs to arrive to install the casino software, they were able to play online Roulette from the comfort of their homes.
As the 1990s progressed, elite casino game developers like Microgaming and NetEnt were the early pioneers in developing mobile-friendly casino games like Roulette. Well before the rise of the cell phone boom in the 2000s, the plans to transform Roulette to unprecedented scales were underway. So, if you enjoy a quick hand of 25-Cent Roulette or live dealer Roulette, you can thank Microgaming and NetEnt in particular for the smooth gameplay in the palm of your hand.
Thank goodness for the rise of broadband Internet in the early 2000s, which increased bandwidth. With better bandwidth, casino software providers could upgrade their online Roulette games for better performance.
When Delaware became the first American State in the USA in 2012 to legalize online casinos, the era for today’s elite online Roulette play kicked off. During this time, six other states also legalized online casinos, including granting access to online Roulette play. Also, the 2010s saw a shift from Flash technology to HTML5. There’s no comparison with the improved graphics HTML5 brings to the table, pun intended. Online Roulette was one of the top table games that benefited from the increased exposure.
The Rise of Live Dealer Roulette
In 2019, online Roulette took another giant step with the rise of live dealer gameplay. While Evolution Gaming was already providing live dealer play, in 2019, it overhauled its gaming models and technologies to bring the unparalleled Live Roulette games we enjoy today. Live dealer play is so essential that even sweepstakes casinos like Chanced and McLuck have introduced live dealer sections to celebrate Roulette variants like Lightning and Platinum Roulette.
