Roulette, in primitive forms, has been around throughout ancient history, but the game we know and love today originated in France. Blaise Pascal, a French physicist and mathematician, is famed for creating the Roulette wheel in the 17th century. His failed attempt at defying physics and inventing a perpetual motion machine only left him with an exciting addition to his gambling hobby.
Now, Roulette is one of the most popular casino games out there, and it’s rare you’ll find a casino without the beloved wheel. Many land-based and online casinos, and even live casino Roulette, pride themselves on the variations of the game available. But the question remains: what’s the best way to play Roulette, and with different versions of the wheel available, what really is the difference?
European Roulette
European Roulette is the version of the wheel with just one zero pocket, and was created by two Frenchmen called Francois and Louis Blanc in 1842. At the time, gambling was illegal in France, so the duo took their creation to Hamburg, Germany, where it rose in popularity with its lowered house edge of 2.70%, in comparison to American Roulette, with a house edge of 5.26%. Years later, they bought the game back to France on the request of Prince Charles III of Monaco. They then established the world-famous Monte Carlo Casino Resort, where the European Roulette wheel took pride of place.
French Roulette
French Roulette is essentially the same as European Roulette, but features two rules that offer an additional advantage to the player, these are known as “en prison”, which gives you the chance to gamble your winning bet on the next spin, and “la partage”, where an even-money bet will be divided by two – should the ball land in the zero pocket. These rules lower the house edge to 1.35%.
American Roulette
American Roulette is the version of the game that’s generally more popular in America. Casinos and players alike rejected the European version of the game, and kept the version with both the single zero and double zero pockets that they were used to. This does mean that the house edge is higher, so the casino is more likely to make a profit as the extra pocket on the wheel makes a player’s winning chances a little less – hence why the European wheel spun into popularity so quickly.
Online Roulette
It’s clear that for better chances of winning, playing French Roulette is best, but as this is a rarer version of gameplay and casinos often offer either European or American Roulette, then European Roulette is the better option.
But what about online Roulette? Now, the online Roulette game is available at any online casino, and can be played against the computer with a Random Number Generator (RNG) generating the outcome, or against a real-life dealer at a live casino, streamed directly to your device from a specialist studio. Playing at an online casino makes no difference in gameplay in comparison to a land-based establishment, but you do get the additional perks of not having to leave your house, or change out of your pyjamas.
