European and American Roulette – what’s the difference?

Roulette is known as the “queen of the casino” and this designation is related to history. This type of game can be found in several online casinos as well as physical, but it was not always so, as it was only available to the upper class. So, what is the difference between European and American roulette?

In the early 17th century, in France, Blaise Pascal invented a machine that was limited to making a continuous movement. Apparently this roulette resulted from the merger of several models: English games Roly-Poly, Reiner, Ace of Hearts and E&O, Italian board games (Hoca and Biribi) and the french “Roullete”.

The European roulette contains 36 holes spread between black and red, where each is assigned numbers from 1 to 36. In addition, it also contains a green hole with the number zero, which is usually called the house number and it is the one that offers the casino the profit margin for this game. In the case of European roulette, the house margin is around 2.70%.

On the other hand, American roulette is identical to the European version, that is, it is played with a wheel, on a table and with the same rules. However, this game is subtly different in terms of numbers, as it has a green opening for zero and another green one the for double zero. In this way, the casino’s profit margin increases to 5.26%, but, in compensation, it offers some types of extra bets to customers, such as betting on five numbers.

It is for this reason that most players prefer European roulette, as the casino’s margin is lower, so they are more likely to win. Gamblers looking to have fun in this type of roulettes can find these variants in the online bookmakers (that have casinos too) listed on this website.