Californian Roulette

In the sun drenched US state of California the beaches may be buzzing, but in 2004 this famously liberal state got a little hot under the collar about the fun and games to be had betting on dice and balls- or what it sees as games of chance rather than skill, and banned them! Who knows what the future of roulette is in this US State, but for now playing on the wheel can be a little tricky.

So what does this restriction mean to you as a roulette lover? Sadly this means that the darling little pill or ball that spins around a roulette wheel falls foul of the law and takes the Queen of Table Games strictly off legal limits in the Golden State

So what happens if you find yourself out West and you fancy a game of roulette? Well, those smart beach-loving guys and gals have come up with an ingenious alternative which is played with cards, which means that this game of skill sits neatly inside state law. What makes roulette so popular that a whole state had to come up with a new game to bend the rules? You just can’t put the game down…..Welcome to Californian Roulette!

So what is California Roulette- no we’re not talking about the slang term referring to whether there’s gonna be a big earthquake today, we’re all about the biggest card game in town.

It’s a crazy variant on a classic game of roulette, but how does it roll? The traditional roulette wheel is replaced with a special deck of 38 cards (1 to 36 and then that house-loving double zero), mimicking the numbering of an American roulette wheel, instead of the European 37 numbers- (we are stateside after all).

What is so ingenious about this game is that despite the lack of a wheel, which feels like it will leave a massive gap in the “roulette” experience, the game is oddly similar with the red and black of the card deck providing the same options bet-wise as the wheel normally does. And of course, the numbers work the same way too.

So the mechanics of the spin of the wheel can be replicated in different ways. One version sees the dealer literally turn over a card from the selection which is randomly shuffled by a machine and this is the winning card, but there is a world of creative variations to this popular new game.

One way is to spin a kind of wheel filled with red and black cards, when the wheel stops the colour is determined by a pointer. The number is then selected by the dealer turning over one of two cards on the table, one red and one black. Once the card of the selected colour is turned then the number is chosen- this is the winning number.

California isn’t the only state clamping down of roulette and craps fun in what could be the biggest upset for players since the Straperlo Scandal in the 1930s. In the Grand Canyon state of Arizona similar regulations have been put in place, and here too gamblers are getting creative in making their fun in a world of new ways that sit inside the law of the land.

Let’s hope if further legislation is laid down across the US that other states can produce legal games that allow serious gaming to take place in whole new and kooky way.! With necessity being the mother of invention, the law-makers have forced innovation in the gaming industry, so we salute them for facilitating the best in new gambling creativity…..