American Roulette

American Roulette

Despite favouring the house, the American wheel remains a prevalent roulette variant, primarily due to it being the wheel of choice in Las Vegas, the gaming capital of the world. However, its prominence has lessened with the advent of the Internet and the growing popularity of online gaming. Below we will examine how the American wheel came to be!

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American Roulette History

When roulette came to the fledgling United States by way of New Orleans, it was an established game popular throughout Europe. The single "0" wheel introduced by Francois and Louis Blanc was now the standard wheel, and it was unusual to see a 38-pocket wheel, one with both the "0" and "00", and thus increased house odds. The very notion of a third house pocket would have seemed absurd to those European gamblers at the time.

However, this new gaming market in a young United States did not have the same expectations, and in many cases, the clientele had never had intimate contact with the game. Therefore, greedy operators where able to add a third house pocket with little to no fuss. The third pocket was essentially another zero, but they called it the American eagle due to the image used to decorate it. House odds on this wheel were 7.69% as opposed to 5.26% on the European wheel and 2.70% on the French wheel.

This was not the only change made by the new American operators. In Europe, casinos played both the European and French wheels at a leisurely pace, 36 spins per hour. America, on the other hand, had already developed an impatient aspect to its personality. Therefore, the gaming house sped up the speed of the wheel. This change met the demands of the clientele while also allowing the gaming houses to generate more revenue.

This style remained popular because there was no other choice. However, as online gaming expanded, it became clear that even US players preferred the French and European wheels. Many online gaming houses still offer an American wheel because many roulette players like to have the option of changing up their luck. Gamers should note that the American wheel is never the right choice purely in terms of probability.

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