There are different theories regarding the origins of roulette, but most people agree that in its current form it was invented in France in the 18th century. Read this article if you want to learn more about the success story of this fabulous casino game.
Origins of Roulette
Some people believe that the concept of the roulette wheel has been introduced to Europe by Asian traders, a theory that while being plausible lacks any concrete physical or historical evidence. On the other hand, it's certain that the first modern roulette wheel was invented by famous French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher Blaise Pascal, who had the goal to create a perpetual motion machine.
While Pascal's intention was not to create a gambling game, his invention significantly contributed to the modern roulette we play today. A few decades later the roulette wheel was adopted as a gambling game.
The first recorded roulette game is from 1796, when French novelist Jaques Lablee described it in his book named "La Roulette, ou le Jour" that was inspired on a game that he saw at the French Royal Palace. At this time, the roulette wheel contained a double zero pocket.
The single zero style roulette wheel was introduced in 1843 by Frenchmen called François and Louis Blanc in order to offer better and more attractive services to the people visiting the German casino town of Homburg.
At this time, roulette was already wide spread and famous in Europe, but it didn't take long until it conquered the American continent, as well. Brought to the New World by French immigrants first it became popular in the New Orleans area, but later spread across the whole country.
But the real boom of this game was in the second half of the 20th century, when it became available and affordable to most of the people in society. At the beginning of the century, only two cities had roulette casinos, namely Las Vegas and Monte Carlo, but a few decades later this number went up to several hundred.
Online Roulette
The popularity of roulette experienced an unprecedented rise in the era of the internet, when online casinos started to get established. Roulette became one of the most respected online casino games, due to its elitist and elegant image, but also because of the very cheap prices online casino's charged for roulette games.
Unlike land based casinos, that focused on either the single zero or double zero variant, online roulette sites embraced both types and allowed players the chance to choose whatever gameplay they liked the best.
Online roulette comes with a huge advantage over land-based roulette, namely the roulette bonuses offered by casinos. If you decide to register to an internet roulette site, most of the time you'll be entitled to receive a gigantic free money offer after you deposited.
During the past few years, a new trend started to spear across online casinos, namely live roulette games that allow you to watch a real game of roulette, administered by a real dealer. Sophisticated software allows you to give instructions to casino staff in real time and watch the action live via webcam.
These and other things made online roulette more popular than its land based counterpart. You can't find an online casino that doesn't offer roulette tables, and services get better and better by every passing day.