Without a doubt the game most closely associated with a Casino is Roulette. Despite that fact that all sorts of gambling and betting games are played in Casinos the most enduring images inside Casinos are of roulette wheels and tables. It’s probably not just the wheel and table that makes the association between Casinos and roulette so strong; the fact that people seen sitting around a roulette table are invariably glamorous and look wealthy helps to reinforce the connections that we perceive between roulette and Casinos.
Like many betting and gambling games roulette has a genesis of its own arising out of English, Italian and French ‘wheel’ and board games of the 18th century. Although there are now two distinct forms of the roulette wheel, referred to simply as the European and American roulette wheels; the modern game of roulette is first described in a French novel first published at the beginning of the 19th century. The book was called ‘La Roulette ou le jour’ and contains a description of the game of ‘Roulette’, as we would recognize it now; played at the Palais Royal opposite the Louvre in 1796. The only prior mention of the term ‘roulette’ in the context of a gambling game is in relation to certain games being banned in Canada, one of which was roulette in 1758. Throughout the 19th century the game of roulette quickly became a popular favorite in Casinos across Europe and America. By the middle of the 19th century several different forms of the roulette wheel were in existence, including single zero (0) and double-zero (00) ones. Whilst it wasn’t until the latter part of the 20th century that Las Vegas became a name synonymous Casinos and gambling, the European capital of gambling can trace its history back to the 1860s when Germany banned gambling across the country. When the ban came into force the leading Casino with a roulette table in Germany relocated to Monte Carlo and in doing so, facilitated by the improvements in the transport systems of the time, it attracted both the noblesse and the nouveau riche from all over Europe.
Many betting and gambling games have variations on their rules which can be played by agreement between the players. The most significant variation that you’ll come across in playing roulette is whether the wheel has 37 or 38 slots for the ball to fall into. On a European wheel there will be 37 slots, 0 to 36; whereas on an American wheel there are 38 slots, which again only numbers up to 36 - but has an extra slot labeled 00. As well, of course, the numbers on the roulette wheel are alternately colored red and black to match those on the table. Whilst neither of the two wheels have consecutive numbering neither do they follow the same sequence of numbers. A European wheel starts 0-32-15-19; whereas an American starts 0-28-9-26 etc, with the 00 slot slightly more than half-way around the wheel. Generally speaking the American wheel is now the most common one used internationally. When playing online roulette always be clear as to which type of roulette wheel is being used.
Without using the actual term ‘cheating’, regardless of the game being played in a Casino some players, usually those that are losing, suspect there to be something underhand in the way the ‘house’ is playing the game. Regarding roulette in this matter it is the idea that the wheel is, in some way, fixed or can be unduly influenced by the wheel-spinner. The fact is that being a mechanical device a roulette wheel will have some sort of inherent ‘bias’. Having said that Casino roulette wheels are engineered to the very highest standards and ‘wheels’ in legal casinos will be inspected by the local authorities to ensure they are not easily or unduly influenced. Bricks and Mortar casinos also regularly rotate the member of staff spinning the wheel to ensure variations in the speed the ball is sent around the wheel and the speed the wheel operates at; things which both intentionally or unintentionally can work with or against the bias of a wheel.