As far as casino games go, Roulette is arguably one of the most popular and immediately identifiable. What many people might not realize however, is that there are actually some slightly different types of roulette out there (and before you say it, no, we’re not going to cover “Russian Roulette” in the course of this article).
But before we get too deep into the roulette variants, let’s explore some of the history of the game, shall we? The first true form of roulette emerged out of France during the 18th century. Earlier forms of the game existed prior this, but they were crude and essentially remained mish-mashes of several existing games and are not generally considered to be true examples of roulette. In short, the game spread all of Europe becoming a feature attraction in many betting parlors. By the time the 19th century rolled around, roulette was firmly entrenched and a main attraction at many casinos throughout the USA as well as Europe.
In short, there are basically 2 types of roulette wheels – French and American. Pretty much all traditional games of roulette are played with one of these two wheels. The differences between the two are thus:
The French roulette wheel – also called the single 0 wheel (0)
The American roulette wheel – also called the double 0 wheel (00)
Simply put, the American wheel has one more number (a double zero) which makes the odds slightly worse than that of the French variety. Aside from this difference, the standard rules of roulette are essentially the same regardless of the type of wheel used. Note* – American roulette wheels are typically used in the US, South American, the Caribbean, and Canada while the French (also called the European wheel) is generally used in every other location.
However, these aren’t the only types of games bearing the name “roulette”, there is also “California roulette” which involves the use of a spinning wheel and attached playing cards (38 in total). In essence, it involves a dealing spinning the wheel and taking bets on which card or suit, etc…a pointer will land on. There is also another roulette variation practiced in California which uses a more traditional wheel that contains only black and red slots for the ball. As the wheel is spinning two cards are drawn and placed inside separate black and red slots. Once the ball lands, the cards and their numbers are revealed which is meant to indicate the winning number, of course.
Lastly, there are roulette variants which are played entirely online like “wild Viking” roulette. Simply put, this is a game that incorporates poker with the environment of a roulette table, which can be very fun as well. To learn more about wild Viking roulette, click here.
Good luck and remember to have fun and always engage safe and responsible gambling practices.