Roulette is one of those popular casino games that most people are aware of. Even if you’ve never played the game before, you probably have a good idea of how it’s played. With the casino business going through a period of intense change, what does roulette add to the industry currently and what can we expect in the future?
The History and Popularity of the Game
Roulette is one of the oldest casino games, with some sources claiming that the wheel goes back to the 17th century and was inspired by the older Italian game known as Biribi. By the end of the 18th century, roulette was one of the most popular games in Paris. Early versions of the wheel were similar to modern American wheels, with a single zero and a double zero.
We can see one of the first major business decisions involved in the game in the 1840s when the double zero was abandoned in the historic German resort town of Bad Homburg. This lowered the house edge – which we’ll look at in more detail in a moment – and created the modern European wheel. While this tactic meant that the casino would, theoretically, win less money, it was designed to attract more customers. The strategy worked and roulette became massively popular.
In this way, the single-zero version of the game became firmly established in Europe. In the US, roulette also proved to be wildly popular upon arrival. However, American casinos added the double zero back in – and some versions even had an American Eagle as a third “house” pocket. This didn’t affect the popularity of the game, with the betting layout also slightly simplified in the North American market.
A Wide Variety of Ways of Playing Online
It’s clear that a game that’s been popular for so long will have changed over time. Roulette had actually remained remarkably unchanged for a long time until the arrival of online casinos shook up the industry. The first online roulette games at the turn of the century were played on simple virtual tables but the variety has increased dramatically since then, as the sort of high-quality presentation seen on the top streaming sites has reached the casino industry.
So what do we mean here? Take a look through the current list of different roulette online options and you’ll see that there are many ways of playing this game that add new themes and features to the basic gameplay. Titles such as Classic American Roulette and European Roulette are joined by Dragon Roulette and other innovative variants. Live dealer versions of roulette have added a new dimension by bringing the physical wheel back and adding a social element that almost makes it feel like the game has gone full circle back to its roots.
This online variety has led to many new players deciding to try to game with the convenience of online play. Roulette has become hugely popular with many players who had never played it before and has even had a breakthrough in countries where it wasn’t particularly well-known in the past.
The Business Reasons for the House Edge
To delve deeper into the business impact of roulette, we need to consider the house edge. This is the percentage of the total amount wagered that the casino expects to earn as a profit. European games have a 2.7% edge, with the American wheel at around double that amount, although some live dealer versions add new features that may vary this figure.
The European wheel offers one of the lowest house edges in any casino, with baccarat and blackjack among the few games that have a lower percentage in this respect. Therefore, this game remains sought-after among casino owners for a couple of reasons, the first being that it attracts players to gamble in the first place. The other is that the attractive gameplay means that many people are happy spending a lot of time at the roulette table, with some of them winning and others losing.
A Look Ahead
The long, fascinating history of the roulette wheel has brought us to the current day, with emerging technology ensuring that it has now diversified in ways that players from the past could never have imagined. Bearing in mind what we’ve seen to date and how roulette has been adapted to different business needs, it seems certain that the game will continue to be among the most popular forms of gambling.
A key element throughout the history of roulette has been the way that it hits the sweet spot in terms of giving casinos a good profit while entertaining players and giving them a fair chance of winning. As long as casinos and game creators stick to those principles, we should look forward to seeing a lot more of the roulette wheel in the future.
