Roulette

The game of roulette is probably the most emblematic of casino games.

The game of roulette first appeared in Italy at the beginning of the seventeenth Century.

roulette

Little has changed with roulette since 1796 with the inception of modern roulette as we know it today. Casino visitors continue to be thrilled by its unpredictability, the variety of betting options available and its James Bond movies feeling of déjà-vu.

Once the dealer says "rien ne va plus" (French) or "no more bets" (English), he starts to spin the wheel and the players are not allowed to place bets anymore. He then spins the ball in the other direction and all eyes are riveted to the ball, trying to determine on which number it will land.

The game of roulette is not played the same everywhere. But what is common to all roulette games is that the players bet on numbers, combinations, range or just colors from a list of 36 numbers. All the numbers are drawn on the roulette table in a specific pattern allowing the betting.

There are two kinds of roulette wheels. Single-zero wheels have one zero in addition to the 36 numbers, whereas the double-zero wheels used in American roulette has an additional double zero. There are two kinds of bets, the so-called "inside bets" and "outside bets".

Inside bets are any of the following:

  • straight-up: bet on a single number,
  • split: a bet on two adjoining numbers,
  • street: a bet on three aligned numbers (a street),
  • square: a bet on four numbers joined at a corner,
  • six line: a bet on two adjoining streets,
  • trio: betting on 1, 2 plus either 0 or 00.

Outside bets are any of the following:

  • 1 to 18: a bet on the half lowest numbers,
  • 19 to 36: a bet on the half highest numbers,
  • red or black: as half the numbers are black-colored, the other are red,
  • even or odd: a bet on the winning number being even or not,
  • dozen bet: a bet on the first, second or third dozen,
  • column bet: a bet on any of 3 columns of numbers.

As we all know, the house has an edge and this is how they get compensated to run the games.

For European roulette, the house has a 2,70% edge stemming from the presence of the zero, on which players cannot bet. In American roulette the house edge is about twice as much (5.26%) because of the "0" and the "00".

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