History of Roulette
The history of modern casino goes back to the 17th and 18th centuries, when the rules of the modern versions of common casino table games were invented. The word casino in fact comes from the Italian word for a small country house or villa, which were used for public functions such as dancing, gambling and music performances. Most of the games played in these establishments were games of chance, based either on cards, dice or the newly-developed roulette wheel.
Roulette was based on an invention of Blaise Pascal and it’s known to have been played in Paris since the late 1790s. The original game had two zeros for the house edge, but in the mid-1800s, in the German town of Bad Homburg, a version with just one house pocket was introduced.
How to Play Roulette online
Roulette is one of the most popular table games in online casinos. The game has a wheel with pockets for numbers between 1 and 36 as well as a house pocket (or two) to provide the casino a house edge. Roulette for beginners is a very simple game to learn.
Half of the numbers are black and the other half red. The exception is the house pocket, which is colored green. The croupier spins the ball in the opposite direction of the spin of the wheel and eventually when the ball loses it’s momentum, it will fall into one of the pockets on the roulette wheel.
Players place bets on any of the allowed betting options.
The basic bet is on a particular number. If the player guesses the number correctly, he/she will win his bet 36 times based on the roulette odds of this happening.
Bets can also be placed on the color (red or black) and on the parity (odd or even) of the upcoming number.
The roulette rules allow also betting on whether the number will be high or low (1-18 or 19-36). There is even the possibility to bet on the first, second or third dozen (1-12, 13-24, 25-36), the so called street (a horizontal line) or a column on the roulette table.
Roulette payouts depend on the mathematical odds of the game. In modern world, like everything else, table games like roulette are playable on the internet on any of the numerous online casinos out there. You are never too far from opportunity to log into your player account and make a few bets.
Variations of Roulette
There are several versions of common casino table games. The rules vary slightly and this may affect the house edge of the game. For example, depending on whether the roulette wheel has one or two house pockets (0 and 00), the house edge is either 2.63% or 5.26% respectively. The version with only one house pocket is called European Roulette. The one with two house pockets is a variation (American Roulette) played in most US land-based casinos.
From the player’s perspective American Roulette is inferior to European Roulette due to the difference in the house edge. Otherwise they work in the same way. Some casinos also offer a variation called French Roulette. It’s basically European Roulette with a slightly different layout. What makes it different is the addition of an extra rule, “La Partage”. When placing an even-odds bet and the ball falls into the house pocket, the player is paid half of his bet back.
Some casinos also offer French Roulette based on a variation of the La Partage rule called “en prison”. Under this rule, if on an even-odds (or color) bet the ball ends up in the house pocket, losing players are allowed to put their bet en prison and the stake if left for another spin. If the player wins, he gets the original bet back.
When playing casino table games online, there is a wide variety of options available. Most online casinos have all the most popular table games and there are usually several different tables for various betting levels and special VIP-tables for high-rollers.
Usually these games use a random number generator which decides the outcome of the spin of the roulette ball. Lot of these games can be played in demo-mode and sometimes with a no-deposit bonus. That way you can potentially play roulette for free and win real money! Make sure to check out our available bonuses that are suitable for roulette.
The improved speed of currently available internet connections and mobile data plans have made it possible to play roulette online also against a real croupier. The game is played using a video stream from a casino studio or a real live casino. It is now even possible to play these live casino table games on any modern mobile device, be it a smartphone or a tablet or smart TV.
Online Roulette Strategies and Tips
Over time, many people have come up with strategies and tips that they believe will make their odds of playing Roulette profitably more likely. For example, one of the most famous strategies for roulette is the so called Martingale strategy.
When using this roulette strategy, the player places a bet on the color or parity of the number. If the player loses, he places a new bet on the same color or parity and doubles the bet. Eventually, it is thought, the player will win one chip more than what he/she has bet. Obviously this strategy only works if the casino allows unlimited bets and as long as you can afford placing bets.
Every casino, be it online or not, limits the allowed bets to a certain limit, so this strategy is not bullet-proof in real life.
We can’t really give any specific roulette tips that work perfectly, because none of them removes the house edge. Therefore, to think that if the roulette ball has fallen on five consecutive reds, the odds of the next one being a black would somehow be higher. Each spin is random and so the changes of the next spin aren’t in any way affected by the previous spins. The only tip we can give is it have fun and play with money that you can easily lose.
