If you are a roulette fan, you have probably come across casino tips and review pages warning you against live American roulette, or the American version of the roulette game in general. This is because of the additional zero involved in the game, which considerably increases the house advantage and makes the game riskier than the other kind of roulette, European roulette. But before you avoid American roulette completely, it is important to find out how American roulette came along.
The original roulette game came from France. Back in those days, the classic roulette game has yet to be modified by the addition of zeros. At first, the European casino houses added one zero, making the pockets 37 instead of the classic 36. However, when the game was finally popularized in the United States, American casinos added yet another zero to it. If the one zero increased the house advantage a lot, the two zeros made the game even more challenging. Thus, aside from the pockets numbered from 1 to 36, there are two additional pockets numbered 0 and 00. All in all, the American roulette has 38 numbered slots, among which players can choose from when they bet.
Another distinctive feature of American roulette is the valuation of the chips that are used in the game. The chips used for American roulette all have the same value at a certain time. That means that when you buy several chips at one time, all your chips will have the same value. This is different from how the European version of roulette sets values for the chips used for playing. In European roulette, you can buy chips with different values at once. The values are already attached to the chips themselves, so the value of the chips does not change regardless of the time you purchase. However, this feature may not be very important when it comes to online gaming.
When casinos finally went online, the American version of roulette was translated into live American roulette, a game that is very popular within the gambling circle. Roulette lovers considered American roulette a primary variation of roulette, along with European roulette. Thus, you can expect to find American roulette where you can find European roulette. The two variations go hand in hand, since there are some players who like facing up to the additional challenge of American roulette.
