Roulette game is one of the most favorite pastimes for casino players. This game of chance is a very popular due to the interesting and thrilling gaming process and high payouts in case of luck. So what are roulette major types and what the difference between them? Let's consider them carefully.

European roulette origin

European roulette wheel appeared in 17th century in France. The word roulette means "little wheel" in French. It is believed that a famous mathematician, Blaise Pascal, who was fascinated by devices of perpetual motion and wanted to prove his theory that devices in motion stay in motion. He created the famous today roulette wheel, but failed to prove his theory. Luckily this was the beginning of the popular casino game roulette.

Originally, roulette wheel has only 36 numbered slots. This allowed players to win easily and casino owners decided to make the game more challenging and added zero slot. That increased the roulette house edge to 1:37. Another names for European roulette are Single zero roulette or French roulette.

American roulette origin

Europeans loved the roulette game and brought it to America. The game gained its popularity in the 20th century.

American roulette wheel had been changed a bit in order to bring American casinos higher profits from increasing house edge. Additional "double zeros" slot was added to the wheel. This was the major difference from European roulette. The number of slots amounts to 38 which makes American roulette wheel even challenging.

European vs. American roulette

Is it only one slot that makes American roulette different from European roulette? No, there are other significant differences.

• The numbers on European roulette wheel are placed in the random order in contrast to American roulette where numbers are placed opposite one another in pairs;
• European roulette table is more symmetric but American roulette table layout is more practical and comfortable when playing because red/black & odd/even are really close to each other;
• European roulette gives players better odds because there is only one zero in contrast to American roulette;
• Odds in American roulette are 1:38 comparing to 1:37 in European roulette;
• The house edge of American roulette with single and double zero is 2:38 which is 5,26%;
• The house edge of European roulette with only one zero is 1:37 which is 2,7%.