From Online Roulette to a TV Phenomenon: Part 1 - Streaming Roulette

Roulette has changed from being a game played at the back of casinos to a live TV phenomenon. This, the first of two articles, will look at the rise of the internet roulette market. Starting from a simple downloadable client placed on your desktop this has now moved to live TV roulette shows and there were many states in-between, such as live streaming roulette from real casinos.

Roulettes popularity in casinos cannot be denied. Since the internet first became commonplace, roulette has been one of the staples of online casinos. During the early days of the internet, it was practically impossible to go to any sit anywhere without being confronted by a variety of pop-ups or banner adverts trying to persuade you to "Play Free Roulette" or go to the "Best Online Casino". There was no way of escaping the adverts, and online casinos weren't shy about showing their wares.

Although the adverts were annoying, the enticement of free play roulette captured many prospective, and real, gamblers. The online casinos could do nothing but gain in popularity. Offering a massive variety of games, mainly slot machines only at first (similar to the fruit machines found in many pubs and clubs), the casinos required you to download a client program to your desktop which would then connect with the site using the internet. Once downloaded, you logged on and played the games from within your download.

As mentioned, the first games were simple slots and slightly more complex video poker. Roulette started appearing when people were obviously becoming bored with the single-click nature of these games. More complex games like Blackjack and Keno were added, increasing the online casinos repertoire to include board, card, and lottery games. There was one main problem (aside from the downloadable client) which put gamblers off. The results were all computed, not truly random. The casinos were forced to regulate the results, but amongst players, lingering doubts about the true nature of the games remained.

While this was happening, a parallel phenomenon was taking place: Online Poker. Although this was played with a downloadable client and the drawing of the cards was again computer controlled, there was a difference here in the way you played. You were not alone! This time you were actually playing against real people. With online chat, you had the ability to talk to your opponents. You could actually interact with other people playing the same game. The feeling of being involved in a real game, albeit in a virtual casino, was enhanced.

Meanwhile, broadband internet was becoming more popular. The massive speed increase allowed surfers to see video at a smooth rate. Computer power increases and the advancement of software allowed more complex software to be run from within the browser, removing the necessity to download complex clients to the desktop to provide enhanced graphics. In short, the internet was moving from a static medium to a multi-functional platform.

The online casinos took note. They saw the streaming video, the browser-based software, the interactivity between users, and figured that there would be some way to combine these. Streaming video could remove the uncertainty of computer-based results by showing video from live casinos. Browser technology would remove the downloads disliked by users. Forums and chat rooms would allow interactivity.

One of the first sites to start streaming was the Fitzwilliam Card Club, based in Ireland. The Dublin Bet Roulette website became a massive success, showing live roulette and allowing users to place bets via their website. Soon, other casinos took notice, and other sites started popping up.

Streaming roulette video online allowed people to actually feel like they were at a casino - it increased their pleasure, as they could now be in a totally different environment, even if they weren't physically there! The guaranteed integrity of the results from a real wheel allowed comfort for players. At least they knew the results were genuine.

In the following article, the further evolution of live roulette will be traced. We will look at the way sites such as Super Casino, Smart Live Casino, and Challenge Jackpot's Roulette Nation have moved to a new medium: Interactive Live TV roulette.