Well, to start, “roulette” is a French word, so it’s fairly easy to work out where roulette was invented. The word translates are “little wheel”, which is understandable if you’re familiar with the game. If not, the game is based around a little wheel. Simple!

So, we know roulette was invented in France, but when was roulette invented? Well, the game that you can play in casinos around the world started in the 18th century and it was an amalgamation of games, stealing ideas from various games around the time and fused together to make roulette.

However, this isn’t where the roulette wheel actually came from. No, the roulette wheel was invented some time before by the French mathematician Blaise Pascal (a name and schoolkid worth their salt would have known) in the mid-17th century. So, this wheel was taken and used for more nefarious means than Pascal had dreamt up (it originated from his idea for a perpetual motion machine, the Holy Grail for scientists, even to this day).

So, we have the wheel, we have the time-frames, what next? Well, by the end of the 18th century, the game had developed into what American casino players will be familiar with – the wheel had the single 0 and the double 0 in the wheel and the game was picking up notoriety in gambling fraternities at the time, even though gambling, specifically games like roulette, were banned in many places around the world. So, if you want to play American roulette, try Slotastic Casino and see what all the fuss was about

So, we have American roulette, but what about European roulette? European roulette wasn’t invented until 40-50 years after American roulette had started to take over in the various gambling dens around the world. Simply put, two men (Francois Blanc and Louis Blanc) wanted to muscle into the marketplace and they decided that to get players playing their version of roulette, they’d remove the double 0 from the wheel, thus giving the players a slightly better edge. This happened in Germany, because gambling in France was illegal at the time. So, although roulette is steeped in French history, a lot of it takes place outside France. Irony is a funny thing.

Now, personally, I don’t get why some players still insist on playing American roulette at online casinos when European roulette is on offer, too. A bit of a shift in odds to the player’s favor? I’ll take it, thanks! If you reside outside America Download InterCasino’s software to take advantage of it and see if it suits you more than American roulette does. Live in America? Aladdins Gold Casino is for you.

So, now roulette is sweeping the world and by the end of the 19th century, gambling dens across the world have some form of roulette on offer. In fact, it is claimed Monte Carlo was built on roulette, as it was one of the few places people in surrounding countries like Germany (who had outlawed gambling) and France, could play these games. So, the gambling Mecca of Monte Carlo has roulette, in part, to thank for its success.

American roulette is barely played around the world these days – European roulette is becoming the flagship for the game and you’ll really only find American roulette played in American and neighboring territories, while everyone else embraces European roulette.

So, roulette hasn’t really changed much over the last 200 or so years. The wheel has become table-mounted, better security has been put into place and other small things have been done to stop cheating, but, for the most part, the game is the same one dreamt up all those years ago by some Frenchman. You can’t go into a casino these days without finding at least one roulette wheel and, in fact, electronic/computer generated wheels with a random number generator operating them can be found in casinos, as well as touch-screen tables and “speed roulette” with no “outside” bets allowed, but the heart of the game is always just betting on a number that the ball will land in. Roulette will always be a staple of both offline and online casinos and it’s worthwhile checking out some online casinos to see which software you prefer. I like the software at InterCasino, but because online casinos know roulette brings a lot of players in, nearly all of them have great software in place, so check them out and start playing one of the oldest games that casinos offer.

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