In the gambling world roulette is a classic. Together with craps and blackjack, online roulette is a flagstaff in any casino in the USA, and it is more popular in the European continent, where roulette is a historical and cultural part of the gambling scene. The game has been played in the continent since the 1700s. And now online roulette is popular everywhere in the world.
With regard to how roulette is played, it is absolutely opposite to craps. Craps are all about excitement, while roulette is a civilized game. Roulette is a soothing, slow game, the game you may play while wearing elegant clothes and having a fine drink.
Regardless of the fact that roulette can be found in all the US casinos, it is not so popular there as it is in Europe. Speaking about table games, we should say that roulette makes less money than craps, baccarat, or blackjack, and in most casinos, you can find an only roulette table. The main reason of that roulette isn’t so popular in America as in Europe is the difference in game rules. American roulette has double zero while European roulette has a single zero as a result a house edge in European roulette is about half less than in American roulette.
Modern roulette was born somewhere in 1796. It was played in Paris in almost the same form as it is played nowadays. All the elements of roulette we play today were present: red and black slots on the wheels, the numbers from 1 to 36 and a 0 or a 00, etc.
Roulette had many forerunners. In the beginning of the 18th century, “biribi”, an Italian ball game was popular in France. Together with another wheel game which was based on colors they made a modern roulette. “Roly-poly”, an English game, appeared in 1720, it involved white and black slots. Roulette might possibly be a mix of both biribi and Roly-poly.
Since the beginning of the 19 century, roulette has been one of the most popular gambling activities in the world. It is frequently called the “King of Casino Games”. But after the WWII the game started to lose its popularity because players understood that blackjack brings more profits.