Classic Roulette Online

The roulette game is often called the honorary nickname of king of casino games and this unofficial name is quite justified as you can definitely meet roulette game in any country of the world and in any casino. Appearing in France in the eighteenth century, roulette instantly won gamblers affection and has since remained one of the most popular and widespread types of games in both traditional casinos and online casinos.

Roulette Game History

It is not known for certain who exactly became roulette inventor; although, according to one version, as far back as the seventeenth century, Blaise Pascal, the famous mathematician, accidentally constructed a primitive roulette wheel during experiments with a perpetual motion machine. Pascal never invented the perpetual motion machine, but gave humanity one of the most popular gambling in the history of its existence. Already in 1796, roulette growth in popularity began in France, although the first mention of this game did not come to an end, but to the beginning of the eighteenth century; for example, in 1758, in Quebec, the game of roulette was banned along with other gambling.

At the end of the eighteenth century, roulette reigned in Parisian casinos; in 1843, the French brothers Francois and Louis Blanc presented in the German city of Homburg a practically modern version of roulette with 0 sector. At the very end of the nineteenth century, roulette made its way through the United States, where a special version of American roulette wheel appeared: it had sectors 0, 00 and the American eagle (this sector was decorated with an image of the eagle, and its presence provided the casino with an additional advantage over the players). By the way, it is extremely rare, but today it is also possible to find roulette with an American eagle.

Roulette is associated with the development of Monte Carlo as one of the main European gaming capitals. In the sixties of the nineteenth century, when the German authorities banned gambling, the Blanc brothers moved to Monte Carlo, making the small town a real gambling mecca for the European elite. It was here, in Monte Carlo, where roulette with sector 0 turned into the most popular casino game and then spread to casinos around the world (roulette with sector 00 was long popular only in the USA). By the way, according to legend, Francois Blank sold his soul to the devil in order to invent such a popular gambling game; the legend appeared due to the fact that the sum of all the numbers on the roulette wheel, from 1 to 36, is 666, that is, the devil’s number. It is because of this fact roulette is sometimes called the Ferris Wheel.

Nevertheless, today everyone can play roulette in more than a thousand different casinos around the world or numerous online casinos, so the name king of gambling is still justified.

Roulette Game Description

The principle of playing roulette is extremely simple: the dealer, who calls the shots, starts the roulette wheel and the ball, which move in opposite directions. Gradually slowing down the movement, the ball falls into one of the numbered sectors; besides, it is believed that before the ball’s falling into the sector, it must make at least three rotations along the roulette wheel. After the ball stops, the dealer announces the winning number, collects all the losing bets and pays the winnings to the lucky players.

The modern roulette involves cells from 1 to 36, painted in black and red (the colours of the cells alternate) and the zero sector, i.e. 0, painted in green. Depending on the roulette type, there can be two sectors: while there is only one zero sector in traditional European roulette, there are two sectors in American roulette as zero and double zero (i.e. 00). Although the principle of playing roulette is the same, European and American roulette are distinguished not only by the presence of zero sectors, but also by the principle according to which the players make bets. For example, in American Roulette a player can bet on a total of five sectors: one selected number and two adjacent to the left and right of the selected sector.

Roulette Rules

The roulette rules are as simple as possible: after the announcement made by the dealer, the player bets on a certain number, and then simply waits for the results of the roulette wheel rotation. In fact, the player’s task is to guess which of the roulette wheel sectors the ball will fall into after stopping.

The main bets that can be made when playing roulette are as follows:

• Bet on red or black (18 numbers): payout is upon winning 1 to 1
• Bet on an even or odd number (18 numbers): payout is upon winning 1 to 1
• Bet on a small (from 1 to 18) or a large (from 19 to 36) number (18 numbers): payout is upon winning 1 to 1
• Bet on columns/dozens (12 numbers): payout is 2 to 1
• Bet on six numbers (6 numbers): payout is 5 to 1
• Bet on a corner or a cross (4 numbers): payout is 8 to 1
• Bet on three numbers, or the so-called street (3 numbers): payout is upon winning 11 to 1
• Bet on two numbers, or the so-called split (2 numbers): payout is upon winning 17 to 1
• Bet on one number (1 number): payout is upon winning 35 to 1

Some types of roulette games provide for a special rule, the so-called prison rule. According to this rule, if the ball falls to zero, the players who bet on the odds lose 50% of their bets, and the second half of the bet remains on the gaming table until the next round. The introduction of this rule in some casinos is associated with the desire of gaming establishments to reduce the advantage of players and increase the advantage of casinos, because in case when players bet on chances, the casino advantage is only 1.35%.