When the famous Roulette wheel was invented, it was the European version. It consisted of a huge wheel with numbers from 0 to 36, the aim of the game was to guess the number, color or both of the “slot” in which a small white ball would stop and be thrown into the spinning wheel. Really very simple, but not so simple that it makes winning easy. So why invent a new version of the wheel and call it “American”?

A little history of the European roulette wheel is needed before moving on to the differences from the American one. The European wheel, often called the French wheel because it was created in France, was a major leap forward when it was invented.

It gained popularity in European nations with players having more fun and winning with the big wheel, soon this popularity reached the other side of the ocean and of course the casinos in Las Vegas immediately wanted to introduce it among their games. .

The European version consists of 37 number slots, 1 – 36 and one for 0. The arrangement of the wheel and numbers is completely random and does not follow any symmetry. But when the game was brought to America, casino owners did not like the odds on this big wheel, they favored the player more than the casino, and this led them to modify roulette by giving birth to the American wheel.

The American version of the wheel contains “slots” for 38 numbers, 1 – 36, one for 0 and another for 00! By adding this extra 00 slot the odds changed favoring the casino and no longer the player. The arrangement of the numbers was also changed, now they were placed in pairs facing each other thus making the arrangement more uniform and attractive for American casinos. When this wheel was unveiled in the US, players began to lose the luck they had on the European wheel, convincing casino owners that they made the right choice by creating that new wheel. The difference in odds may seem minimal to a person watching the two reels, I mean, it’s just one more slot in the wheel, how much difference can it make? Let’s see in detail:

A single bet by the casino on one number in the 38-number American version of Roulette is priced at 2/38, which equates to a percentage of 5.26%.

For the European version of roulette, a single bet by the casino on a number has a probability of 1/37, 2.70%.

So the gist of this article is that when you play roulette, both online and real, always look for the one based on the European wheel to have a better chance of winning.

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