When online gambling became popular in the 1990s, naturally roulette played a big part in popularising the industry. The best online casinos created glamorous images of gambling at the roulette wheel in their lobbies in order to recreate the excitement of roulette sequences from Hollywood blockbusters like Casablanca and Run Lola Run. Soon all the top online casinos, including Microgaming casinos and Playtech casinos, were featuring roulette in a big way.
Three traditional forms of roulette are among the best casino games. These are European Roulette, American Roulette and French Roulette. European Roulette is played with numbers from one to thirty-six and a single zero. The single zero is neither even nor odd and neither red nor black. All bets lose if the ball comes to rest on the single zero. The only exception is a bet placed on the single zero. Hence the single zero provides the house edge. American Roulette is played with the numbers one to thirty-six, the single zero and the double zero. Sometimes the symbol of the American eagle is used instead of the double zero. Since all bets lose if either the single zero or the double zero is called, the house edge is greater for American Roulette. Therefore American Roulette did not become as popular in American casinos as European Roulette did in European Casinos. Even in online gaming, American Roulette is not considered one of the best casino games. French Roulette, like European roulette, is played with a single zero. However it has a certain bet that reduces the house edge. This best of the casino bets is known as La Partage. In even money bets, like red or black and odd or even, if the ball comes to rest on the single zero then half the bet is returned to the player. This form of roulette has the best casino payout.
The new Microgaming software, known as Viper, includes some innovative versions of roulette. Only the new Microgaming casinos have these games. One is the Progressive Roulette. A portion of the wagers are set aside for a progressive jackpot. If the player hits the same number five consecutive times then the jackpot is his. The pot in Progressive Roulette is known to have reached hundreds of thousands of dollars. The other new Microgaming roulette is European Roulette Gold. It is one of the slickest games in online casinos. It has the state of the art animation that can zoom into the spinning wheel. It has several new features like call bets, auto play, redo and undo action buttons. But best of all it allows players to place bets till the time the wheel stops, giving them more time to guess the number.