Roulette may be a game of chance, but it’s nonetheless governed by a series of well-documented rules. These differ depending upon the type of wheel being used, with three distinct variants existing: European, French, and American. Both land-based and online casinos (and Spinia Casino is not the exception!) mostly use the American or European variant for their roulette offer.
Accordingly, these two forms of the game are the most widespread in the industry. Although the basic rules and the gameplay are relatively similar in both variants, they have small but crucial differences. In this article, we’ll take a look at these types of roulette, the rules that lay out how they’re played, and the differences between them.
THE BASICS
Although there are different types of roulette and three sets of rules to learn, the game remains one of the easiest to play and understand. The French variant was the first, and it was the predecessor of the European variant. Many historians and researchers tend to believe that the inventor of the famous wheel was B. Pascal, a famous scientist who lived in the middle of the XVII century.
Traditional French roulette has simple rules. Opponents are a player and a casino. The disc is divided into thirty-seven sections, numbered from zero to thirty-six. The thirty-seventh segment – “zero,” usually in green. In the traditional game, names and terms are used only in French.
The main difference between this version of the game from the European is that it is allowed to make bets verbally. It happens so: the player tells the dealer what bet he wants to make and gives him the chips, which the dealer himself places on the playing field.
The classic roulette, as it should be known and familiar to most people, usually corresponds to the European variant.
A European Roulette has a game board as well as a kettle in which the numbers from 0 to 36 are arranged according to a certain pattern. The number fields in the kettle are also underlaid with different colors. There is only one zero, which is marked in green.
On the other hand, if you want to play traditional American roulette, you should be prepared for the fact that both the bowl and the game board are structured differently. The differences in the kettle again depend on the particular version of American roulette. The traditional or original American roulette not only has a different arrangement of numbers in the kettle, but in addition to that, it also has an additional number field. The double zero does not occur in French as well as European-American roulette.
However, typical American roulette contains this double zero, which additionally increases the bank advantage of the casino in every game. Players should pay attention to this when positioning their chips. By the way, in American roulette, this is always done by the player himself, whereas in French roulette it is often the croupier who places the bets.
TWO DIFFERENT WHEELS
The one but very significant difference between wheels in American and European Roulette games is that European roulette has only one zero. The American has two zeroes, 0 and 00. This difference ends up in the higher house edge in American Roulette, it is the 5,3% house advantage while the house edge in European Roulette is only 2,7%. The next difference is the difference between layouts: wheels display numbers in a different ways.
For example, the layout on the European wheel starts with 0-32-15-19-4 and on the American with 0-28-9-26-30. In American Roulette, every distribution of five numbers excluding the distribution with 0 or 00 always consists of three odd numbers and two even ones or three even numbers and two odd ones.
The center of European roulette is the wheel, which is provided with 37 compartments or the numbers zero to 36. The zero forms the general house advantage, as it is excluded from most of the groups of numbers you can bet on. In its original form, European Roulette was played at so-called double tables. This has changed over time. Nowadays, gambling is mainly done at single tables, which are supervised by up to four croupiers.
American Roulette is based on the European version. It is a variation of the original. For the US casino operators, the house edge of European Roulette was simply too low. In addition, the design and structure did not fit the American lifestyle in their opinion. For this reason, a modified and more suitable version was needed. This was the birth of American Roulette. The pace of play is much faster in this variant, and the tables are also somewhat smaller. This ensures that the players can get to every square on the board. Although the wheel is slightly smaller, American Roulette also counts the numbers zero to 36, but the wheel also contains the double zero, which in turn is listed on the playing field opposite the zero.
RULES AND GAME PRINCIPLE
The two-game variants have not only general differences. The way of playing also differs despite the basic game principle. In American Roulette, for example, the individual rounds are faster due to the increased pace of play, which in turn dramatically shortens the waiting time at times. Due to the smaller playing field, all betting fields are accessible to all players at the table. This eliminates the need for announcements to the croupier.
CONCLUSION
If you are a beginner, European roulette is more suitable for you than American roulette for those who have ambitious goals but remain within the limits. Due to the double zero in the game, the players get into a kind of odds deficit, which they cannot get out of under normal conditions. Accordingly, only those players who crave an extra challenge should try their hand at the American version. However, no matter which type of roulette you pick, you can surely have fun because of the excitement the wheel brings.