Exploring How Roulette Has Adapted To Technological Changes In The 21st Century

The success of casino gaming has relied on a few elements—but none as important as its ability to adapt continuously to technological change. Within a concise window of the last 30 years, roulette gaming has undergone several significant changes that have transformed how it operates and how casino gamers choose to play the game.

You probably think 30 years is not that concise of a window. Well, it is compared to how long roulette gaming has been around. Roulette is such an old game that there are conflicting reports regarding how and where it emerged.

Some historians put its roots in the Italian game Birdi, while others credit Blaise Pascal with creating the original wheel. Either way, the game dates back at least 300 years, but it likely goes back more than that. So, 30 years is a concise window in the grand timeline of things.

Modern Day Picture

Roulette gaming offers a wide range of options, including desktops, mobile apps, and, more recently, the emergence of alternate payment casinos that use Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency roulette is the latest successful, notable step in the timeline. This might not sound like new news given how much Bitcoin has emerged as a disruptive asset class in traditional finance over the last five years, but the emergence of being able to play Bitcoin roulette online is fresh and unique.

Traditional platforms have considered allowing Bitcoin payments for those looking to play roulette for over a decade. The emergence of online roulette Bitcoin platforms that only deal with that payment method has made those in the broader industry, who are perhaps not as privy to the idea of Bitcoin roulette, sit up and take notice.

Bitcoin roulette will depend heavily on the broader picture—it’s the same for any technological adaptation. All of the other notable chapters within the roulette timeline haven’t emerged and become so successful just because of one specific variable. Several positives often come together simultaneously to create this positive storm.

However, with so many people paying attention to cryptocurrency and it becoming the leading asset for Gen Z to invest in, there will be an increasing number of roulette games and casino platforms looking to leverage this interest and provide ways for people to bet with their Bitcoin.

The Digital Revolution

If we take it back a decade or so before the emergence of Bitcoin, the late 1990s saw a significant spike in the number of people looking to play games online. This wasn’t just roulette or the broader casino gaming world—it applied to all other facets of gaming and the broader global economy, which led to the dot-com bubble, shades of which some investors believe we’re starting to see in AI.

However, if we refocus our attention on the roulette world - despite its constant success in casino gaming, there were initial whispers that online platforms would struggle to find the bandwidth or audience to ensure that online versions of the game were financially viable for casino platforms.

In 2024, this seems like a laughable concept, but in the 1990s, when the internet wasn’t everywhere. It was much slower, with far fewer people willing to put their financial and personal data everywhere; it was a legitimate reason for companies not to divert millions of dollars away from their successful land-based roulette platforms and into the great unknown of the internet.

However, as technology increased and the internet became ubiquitous, those who made the early gamble and continued investing in ways to stream live roulette tables to PCs, all while maintaining secure platforms, were able to create enormously successful platforms, many of which are the multi-billion dollar ones we still see active today.

Apps, E-Wallets & Desktop Roulette

The modern-day roulette picture focuses on mobile apps and other digital payments like Apple and Google Pay, which have been so successful that traditional banks are now rising to the challenge and looking to challenge this changing consumer demand.

Roulette gaming platforms adapted to the online world in the early 2000s. Still, by the early 2010s, thanks to the ingenuity of the first iPhone, which shifted the energy and focus toward mobile apps, it meant that more casino platforms were aiming for ways for people to play games on their smartphones and tablets.

PC and desktop roulette still comprise a large part of the core audience, ensuring that online roulette is the dominant form of the game. However, within the next decade or two, the shift to mobile apps could result in it losing its position at the top, replaced by versions that cater to those who prefer to play on iPads, Android tablets, and smartphones.

We’ve seen how apps have been able to cater to almost every other facet of digital innovation; you can find apps that can even teach the basics of computer programming to Android users - so to think that mobile app designers aren’t looking for ways to eat into the PC and desktop roulette market would be a foolish underestimation from those in the broader gambling world.

Final Say

It feels as though the changes to the casino gaming world are taking place at an ever-increasing pace. The 24/7 nature of global roulette gaming has meant that it works alongside tech innovations, but those platforms that can get ahead and identify the trends that are about to turn into promising new niches—well, that’s where the key to success lies.

Bitcoin roulette is the latest innovation, but who knows what the next one could be? AI dealers? VR casinos in the Metaverse? Only time will tell.