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The Creation of European Roulette
Although roulette was probably invented by the French, the original roulette wheel had a far greater house advantage than today's modern wheels. The original wheel had less pockets and had two "zero" pockets. The roulette wheel as we know it today was a creation of a pair of German brothers, Francois and Louis Blanc. The wheel that they created had only one zero and thus a considerably lower house advantage. The Blanc casino business moved from Homburg to Monte Carlo when the Germans banned gambling of all sorts.
A Superior Roulette Wheel
In bygone ages when casinos were just starting out, it was important for the house to assure itself of a strong advantage in order to guarantee profits. As time went by, the profits of the casino became attributable to sheer customer mass and the house advantage could be lowered significantly. For this reason, the European Blanc brothers could allow themselves to afford a lowering of the house advantage in return for a concomitant increase in their popularity. Of course, such competition for players is in favor of the player and thus the European roulette wheel is a much better bet than its American counterpart.
European Roulette also has a Rule Issue
Another issue which differentiates European roulette from its counterparts is the rule of imprisonment. Although the precise rules vary somewhat from casino to casino, imprisonment involves the rules of resolving a wager of one of the four even money bets when the wheel lands on the zero. Imprisonment (or en prison - as it is often called) means that the bet remains and will be resolved in the following round. The differences between casinos that allow imprisonment revolve mostly about what happens if an imprisoned bet lands on zero again. The only rules variation which has not been found to exist is that the bet is won by the player. Losing the play, continuing the imprisonment and double imprisonment are all possibilities. Some European casinos might actually let players choose between La Partage (a French variation) and Imprisonment.
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