You will have seen them, the black and red squares. You will have heard it, the clack of the ball as it rolls around and you might have felt it, the rush or the pit of agony and ecstasy as the ball reaches its final resting place.
Yes, it’s roulette. Except it wasn’t supposed to be the game we all know and love today. The roulette wheel was invented by Frenchman Blaise Pascal in 1655. He was trying to create a perpetual motion machine but, landed one something very different.
You could say he did create perpetual motion; the perpetual motion of money being spent and games being played. It was popularized in bricks and mortar casinos but, there’s still a mystery behind the online roulette game.
From an accidental invention in the 1600s to the modern game we now know, roulette has come a long way. We can now play from the comfort of our own homes, but can something that’s controlled by machines and artificial intelligence really be non-biased, and how does it all work?
How online roulette is played
First of all, online roulette is played in the same manner that you’ll find in the real world. There’s still a dealer, a wheel and a board. You bet in the same way, and you collect your winnings in the same way.
Depending on whether you’re playing an American or European house, the house edge will be 5% or 3%. This is due to the extra 0 on the wheel in American casinos, while European casinos prefer to operate with just one.
What’s up with the wheel?
Roulette wheels contain the numbers 0-36 laid out in a circular pattern, except in the States, where they have two 0s on the wheel.
These 0s are normally colored in green, to make them super visible and to let you know which numbers you want to avoid! Numbers are also colored red or black, and this gives punters one of the most fundamental bets to play. Red or black? The 50/50 bet.
The technology behind it
One of the most important part of an online roulette game is a random number generator. Online casinos use software that produces a stream of numbers, so when the virtual wheel stops, the most recent number in that stream is picked as the winner.
This enables the machine to produce a list of numbers that’s as close to random as it can possible be. This stream of information is complex and impossible to predict, which means it also insulated online casinos from any user fraud.
The live casino
Another interested facet to consider is the live casino. These are games that are available online, but staffed with real croupiers. The results are still unbiased – casinos risk ruining their reputation if they’re not – but it allows online players to get that human edge.
They combine the best of a bricks and mortar casino with the best of online roulette, and are becoming increasingly popular across the globe.
