The history of roulette dates back to one of the earliest and most pivotal (no pun intended) inventions of human history. We are, of course, talking about the wheel. While many forms of gambling can be traced back through the ages, even to our earliest ancestors, it can be hard to pin down the specifics of how and where certain traditions began. However, we do know that a primitive variant of roulette was played by Roman soldiers, often using the wheel of a chariot that had been removed and placed horizontally on the ground.
In the Roman version of the game, the wheel would be divided into only ten sections, a far cry from the thirty-seven or thirty-eight variants that we all know and love, and an arrow (or spear; this game was frequently played by soldiers, after all) would be placed on the wheel before spinning it. The players would then all place bets on which section they thought the wheel would stop in.
Of course, there may well be earlier uses than that. We’ve had wheels for a very long time, after all, and human innovation for finding new ways to generate random numbers has a long and far reaching history across many different cultures. Given how widespread the Roman Empire was, they could easily have adopted this early gambling game from one of their neighbors, and they almost certainly played a role in helping to spread it wider.
We’ve come a pretty long way from there, of course, and today’s roulette wheel is a lot more sophisticated. In fact, we’re at the point where you don’t even need a physical wheel to play: you just need some choreographed pixels and clever computer software – and digital casinos are responsible for making this into a reality. Yes, in today’s world, you really can play online roulette from your phone or laptop, without even getting off the couch. No chariot disassembly required! So, let’s take a look back over the history of the roulette wheel, and the iterations it has seen.
The mechanical roulette of traditional casinos
The curiosities and legends about roulette are many; some say that it was first brought to Europe from China, but others claim that its inventor was the philosopher Blaise Pascal, a lover of gambling and betting, who developed the first prototype in an attempt to demonstrate perpetual motion.
Mechanical roulette is already a technological marvel and was first mentioned in 1716 in the French city of Bordeaux. It was in the late 18th century that this game took on its traditional aesthetic form, becoming famous in Europe in the 19th century, and in America in the 20th century. What a journey!
The rise of casino streaming
Streaming is one of the technologies that has revolutionized the gaming world in general and online casinos in particular. In fact, it is thanks to streaming that the concept of live digital casinos was born. In live mode, the player can communicate with the dealers by texting in chat, while the dealers respond verbally. You can also ask for trivia about the game or information about regulations.
Live casinos are very popular, and now all the best online casinos have a dedicated section with online roulette, blackjack, baccarat, and poker. It is precisely live online roulette that has contributed to the renewed success of this game – it has never been as popular worldwide as it is now. Thanks to streaming and the live casino concept, roulette has arrived in the homes and smartphones of millions of people worldwide.
Thousands of years have passed from the invention of the wheel to the present day, and yet we still have this simple technology to thank for the fun we all enjoy now. As far as current technology is concerned, digital roulette has made its contribution both to the development of live streaming platforms and to graphic innovations.
In fact, today, there is a very wide range of thematic roulette machines on the web, with designs customized according to users’ preferences, many of which contain themes related to Ancient Chinese, Greek, and Latin populations, perhaps as a nod to the humble origins of this casino game (and maybe others too).
Is virtual reality the future of the gambling industry?
Many people think that virtual reality is the future of gaming, and we can already see it coming into being: Oculus is becoming increasingly popular, and more and more applications offer the ability to immerse oneself in the virtual world. So what does that mean for casinos, which are always looking for the next big thing?
The emergence of virtual reality is also affecting online casinos in general; they are already developing games specifically for this technology. Virtual reality, therefore, will be the next step in roulette history and for digital casinos. Have you ever thought that you could enter a video game version of the roulette table or a live table through optical viewers, and feel as though you’re really standing in a luxury casino, surrounded by glitz and glamor? Wow, we can’t wait.