Win Big with Roulette’s Wheels of fortune!
Roulette, the French for “little wheel”, has always been immensely popular in New Zealand casinos and around the world. Its elegant simplicity is deceptive at first; as many enthusiasts have discovered the game delivers hours of multi-levelled and hugely entertaining playing fun!
The game’s exact origins are unclear, but it may have first been played by Chinese monks who passed it on to their Dominican counterparts, or by Ancient Roman soldiers looking for ways to pass the time. It is also possible that it arose in the mid-1500s as a carnival game. However it began, Roulette seems to be a great example of how the best ideas, culture and even games are spread through the world with cultural and trade exchanges.
Historians are in agreement on how the modern game wheel was invented, where before various objects and even wagon wheels had been used. Blaise Pascal, a 17th-century French scholar, spent many obsessive years trying to invent a perpetual motion machine. A happy by-product of his experiments was the game’s first, crude wheel.
The game also reached England in the 1700s, with a simplified version called “Even-Odd” being used to cleverly evade the bans of the Gaming Acts of 1739 and 1740. After these acts and other prohibiting laws were passed across Europe, the “little wheel” went through something of a quiet period. In the late eighteenth century Prince Charles of Monaco introduced gambling houses in an attempt to alleviate economic problems. Roulette was one of the games that were very successfully revived, becoming hugely popular with local royalty and nobility.
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All these early versions of the game were quite similar to what is played today, much like the evolution of online poker games. The modern wheel made its first appearance in Parisian game halls in 1796, and the single 0 version of the game was invented by the Blanc brothers of France at about the same time. This dramatically reduced the house’s edge and made winning easier. The first European settlers in America took it with them in the early 1800s, and the game was just as admired in the New World. The double zero game variation, called American Roulette today, was developed and was especially popular with the Pioneers in the Californian Gold Rush.
In all of the Roulette games of yesteryear and those today, a wheel was (and is!) spun by a croupier. The wheel has 37 or 38 slots, and a ball placed on the wheel has to land in one of them. Each numbered panel (1 – 36) is alternately coloured in black or red, and the 0 (and 00 in the American game) is green. Various bets can be placed on the ball landing on single numbers, number ranges, colours or odds and evens. The payouts in this game can be absolutely glorious – as much as 35 to 1!
The digital gambling world and New Zealand Dollar Casinos have offered this thrilling game to online New Zealand players for years, so everyone can enjoy world-class versions of this world-class entertainment! It has proven to be a popular choice among remote players, not least because of the authentic online creation of the spinning wheels and breathless atmosphere found in offline establishments. The experience is truly immersive and authentic.
However and wherever gamblers are playing, no land or mobile NZ casino visit can be called complete without a few spins of the Roulette wheel! The name might be “little” but this exhilarating game makes it possible for every player to win big!