Roulette is one of the oldest casino games in the world, which is still enjoyed by millions of players both online and live. Today, with live casino gaming, you can play a wide variety of Roulette games that have some exciting features and offer amazing payouts.
But who invented the game of Roulette and how did it all start? In this article, we’ll take a look at the origins of Roulette and how it has evolved throughout its 400 years history.
The invention of the game in the 17th century
Nobody really knows when the game of Roulette was invented, or who its inventor was. However, a lot of evidence suggests that it was invented by French mathematician Blaise Pascal in the 1700s. It is claimed Pascal was trying to create a perpetual motion machine, which of course he failed to do, but in the process created what we now know as the Roulette wheel.
According to several pieces of literature, the game of Roulette was invented in Italy in the 17the century. In fact, until 1900, encyclopedias called the game which has 38 numbers either “Italian Roulette” or “Big Roulette”. Another version of this game, which was played with just 18 numbers, was referred to as Small Roulette, or German Roulette.
The development of Single Zero Roulette across Europe
At the beginning of the 18th century, the game came to France, where it became very popular and famous in casinos. The layout of the game was slightly different from modern Roulette. In late 1790, the game has a zero which was red, and a double zero which was black. However, despite the colours, they were house pockets. So, if players placed a bet on red or black, and the ball landed on the zero or double zero, they would lose the bet. In order to avoid confusion, the zero were coloured green in the 1800s.
When Roulette began to be played in France, King Louis XV tried to ban the game. In fact, in 1806, the game was only allowed to be played in the casinos of Palais Royale. Roulette was outlawed altogether in 1837 when Louis Phillipe closed down all gambling venues in France. This led to the golden era of German casinos in Baden-Baden, Bad Homburg and Wiesbaden.
In order to get an advantage over the competition, brothers Francois and Louis Blanc of the Bad Homburg casino removed the double zero from the Roulette wheel. Soon after, the single zero variants of the game became quite popular, and it could be found in casinos throughout Europe.
The Age of online and Live Roulette
Casinos were not widespread during the early part of the 20th century. The only noteworthy places where you could play were Monte Carlo, with the single zero variants of Roulette, and Vegas with the American double-zero. All this changed in the 1970s when the popularity of casinos increased and they began to flourish across the world. With the advent of high-speed internet and improvement in hardware capabilities of gaming devices, there came a new generation of casinos where you could play casino games online.
The first online casino hit the market in 1996. However, the available games were limited to a handful of Slot machines and a couple of Blackjack tables. It took a few for Roulette to appear on the online platform, but once people discovered how thrilling it could be to watch the spinning of the wheel from the comfort of their home, their views towards the game changed completely.
No longer are players forced to play just one type of Roulette. Today, the top online gambling sites offer the European, American, and French variants, so you can literally feel like you’re gambling in any part of the world that appeal to you.
The recent introduction of live casino, in which a human dealer spins the real roulette wheel, and this is relayed to the players via a live video stream, removes the doubt on the part of the player and makes for the more realistic and immersive gaming experience. In just a short span of time, this variant of live Roulette has gone to become the most popular online version of the game worldwide.
Different live Roulette variants like Sports Roulette and London Roulette have also been introduced in recent years. Most modern variants of Roulette are based on the French/European game, with its single zero. Today, most live Roulette games offer true HD quality stream and provide the option to view the gameplay from numerous camera angles that really get you close up to the action as it happens.