Meanwhile, the German wheel became the one used in European casinos, leading to the situation today where both American roulette and European roulette have been allowed to flourish in different parts of the world. The house held a 9.68% advantage over players! Not surprisingly, this wheel would eventually fall out of fashion and the eagle was removed from the roulette wheel.Įventually, the traditional French wheel – the one with two zeroes – made its way through New Orleans and into the United States, becoming the de facto standard there. This may be the version of roulette with the highest house edge in history, as single number bets paid 27-1 and there were 31 spots on the wheel. The roulette wheel in America in the 19th century featured only 28 numbers, as well as a zero, a double zero, and the iconic American eagle symbol (which essentially acted as a third zero). Meanwhile, roulette was also gaining popularity in the United States, albeit with a rather different style. This lead to the roulette table adopting a single zero wheel – a game that remains known as European roulette today. They realized that even if they made changes that favored the player, roulette could still have enough of an edge for the casino to make the game profitable. In 1843 a casino in Hamburg decided they wanted to attract players by offering a better roulette game than their competitors. The zeroes were changed to green, a change that has remained to this day. This was to make it clear that these spots would not win on even money bets. Early on, one of the zeroes was colored red, while the other was colored black. The early version of the roulette wheel was similar to the modern American wheel and featured 36 numbers along with a zero and double zero. The first wheels that definitely used something similar to modern rules were found in Paris in 1796. While roulette wheels have always contained numbered pockets that represented the numbers players could bet on during a game, the exact layout of the wheel has changed several times throughout history. Roulette wheels have been around for hundreds of years and, while modern wheels may be more consistent and reliable than their older counterparts, the basics of the way they function and operate are the same as they were in 18th Century France. Roulette is by far and away the most popular wheel game played in casinos today, however even the keenest players have probably given very little thought to one of the most important aspects of the game – the roulette wheel itself.

Double zero roulette wheels