The Game of Roulette
Roulette is one of the most popular casino games being offered today.
As its name may suggest to people familiar with the French language, roulette is a gambling game that involves a wheel. The roulette wheel is the main prop in this particular game of chance. There are two kinds of roulette wheels, but the only differences between one wheel and the other lies in the number of green pockets a wheel might have.
An American wheel, for example, will have two green pockets which are numbered double zero and zero. This kind of roulette wheel is actually the more traditional kind of roulette wheel, and it is used throughout North America. In Europe and in many other places, roulette wheels only have one green "zero" pocket. This kind of roulette wheel was introduced sometime during the mid-nineteenth century in Homburg, Germany, by Frenchmen, Louis and Francois Blanc.
It was invented by the Blancs in order for them to gain an edge over other casinos, which would offer two green pockets. Often, it is the existence of the green pockets on a roulette wheel that makes the house edge possible. In a game of roulette using the more traditional wheel, a person's odds against winning if they play a straight roulette bet are thirty-seven to one, and they get a payout of thirty-five to one. On the other hand, using a European roulette wheel, a gamer's odds against winning are only thirty-six instead of thirty-seven. They still receive a payout of thirty-five to one, but at least the disparity between odds against winning and payout is slightly smaller, and a player's chances of winning are incrementally better.
During the eighteen sixties, the Blanc family brought the game of roulette to Monte Carlo, the only legal casino left in operation at the time. They did this because Germany, where they first made their fortune with the one green pocket-roulette wheel, outlawed gambling sometime during this period. In Monaco, they created a virtual gambling Mecca, where Europe's elite traveled in order to enjoy playing games of chance. The Blancs' single zero roulette wheel spread from there to the rest of the world.
In the United States, on the other hand, thanks to the colonial influence the French had in the state of New Orleans, the game of roulette and its double zero wheel were well established. The game, as it was traditionally played, spread throughout the country through the Mississippi river.