Online casino games are more popular than ever. And there’s good reason why. With smartphone and tablet ownership on the rise, people are working, socialising and being entertained while on the go or from the comforts at home from their favourite devices. And many of them are playing online casino games — which due to advancements in technology, graphics, animation, video and sound are better than ever.
Out of the many classic casino games, roulette has to be one of the top ones that’s done well on an online format. The fun and exciting nature of the game makes it a great one to play roulette online, with online casinos now even offering live versions of the game. You just never know if your spin will lead to a big win!
But what exactly is online roulette and how do you play it? We’ve put together this handy guide of everything you need to know.
A brief history of roulette
While many people these days enjoy roulette, not everyone knows about its longstanding history. In fact, roulette goes all the way back to the 18th century, in France. The mechanism of the roulette wheel is a hybrid of a wheel for gaming invented back in 1720 and an Italian game known as Biribi.
Historians believe that the game as we know it today has been played since the late 18th century back in Paris. There is even a description of the roulette game in French novel La Roulette, oe le Jour by author Jacque Lablee, which includes a roulette wheel in the Palais Royal. Back in those days, the roulette wheels had red for the single zero and black for the double zero. The green colour was used for the zeros beginning in the 1800s to avoid confusion.
In the German town of Bad Homburg, in 1843, Frenchmen Francois and Louis Blanc introduced the single 0 style roulette wheel. This was a strategy to compete against other casinos that were offering the traditional wheel. There are also records of some forms of early roulette wheels in America which included the numbers 1 to 28, as well as a single zero, a double zero and the American Eagle. This Eagle slot was a symbol of American liberty gave the casino an extra edge as it was a house slot. This tradition disappeared and since then the wheels include only numbered slots.
During the 19th century, roulette spread across the US and Europe and soon became one of the most popular and famous casino games.
Roulette is one of the most well-known casino games across the world.
The move to online
The internet boom of the 1900s changed so much about socialising, work and entertainment for the world. This of course includes when it comes to casino games. With more homes having connection to the internet, there began in the late 1990s a new generation of casinos that existed online. Intercasino, which has been credited as the first casino online, opened its doors (albeit, virtually) back in 1996.
This has caused many changes in the way that people play the game. Unlike in previous eras, players can now enjoy their favourite casino game around the clock, with both European and American versions available. Computer technology has made it so that many new and exciting versions of the game have been developed.
Of course, while there were so many benefits to playing roulette online, the atmosphere was definitely missing from the game. This changed with the rise of live roulette, with the first company providing real games being VueTec. In these first live games, a web cam was used to stream them from a land-based casino.
It was in 2006 that the first dedicated live casino studios were launched. This improved the atmosphere of the game and made it much closer to the land-based casinos that everyone has come to know and love – with the ability for the game to be played while on the go or from the comforts of home!
With the movement online, players can now play a game of roulette on a wide range of technological devices including mobile phones.
How do you play
To bet in roulette happens on the betting table next to the wheel. You place your bet and watch the wheel spin until the marble is dropped into the play area that moves in the opposite direction. Bets are won or lost based on where the marble falls. The two most common variations of roulette are French and California – although the French version has come to be the standard.
There are some betting strategies for playing online roulette. These include the martingale system, labouchere system, d’alembert system and James Bond system.
The future of online roulette
What’s the future of this fun and exciting game? It’s likely that, alongside other casino games, roulette will continue to improve as entertainment experience alongside advancements in technology. With new technologies like augmented and virtual reality, we can expect live casino experiences to go to the next level.
Land-based casinos will have to compete as a result. They’ll do this by making their own experiences much more dynamic, with special food and drink offerings available on site, live entertainment and more. Whatever the case, it looks like roulette isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon!
