The name roulette originates from the French term meaning “small wheel.” Roulette is a game of chance that has been around since early in the 18th century, and you can find at least one roulette table in almost all big-name casinos all over the world.
Its main attraction is the roulette wheel which a croupier spins while releasing a small ball for it to spin in the opposite direction. The ball moves along a groove spanning the wheel’s circumference, and once it stops, it would eventually fall into one of the compartments corresponding to the numbers 1 to 36, plus 0 and, at times, double zero.
The opposite wing of a roulette table has a layout on which the numbers are printed. Here, players place their wagers depending on the numbers they believe the ball would fall on in the wheel.
Participating in the game is essentially that easy, as all you have to be aware of are the minimum and maximum bets plus the time window during which you’re allowed to place your bets. The croupier and sometimes another dealer will take care of all the payments for you.
The house gains from roulette via the payment scheme set. For instance, for the American roulette game where there are double zeros, a player has a 1/38 chance of winning a single number prize. This prize, though, pays the player 35:1 – giving the house a 5.26% edge.
On the other hand, in a single-zero roulette game, a player has 1 in 37 chances of winning a single number prize. The house edge, in this case, is a mere 2.70%. This wheel is used in and around Europe.
There are different types of bets in roulette, and consequently, different payouts. A “straight” is a single-number bet, and the chips are placed in the middle of a number square. A “split” is betting on two adjoining numbers on the layout, such as 15 and 18. When a bet is placed for three numbers, all within a single horizontal line, this is called a “street.” For 6 numbers, it’s called a “sixline.”
To bet on four numbers, the chips are placed on the intersection of four adjoining squares, such as 22, 23, 25, and 26. All these are the so-called “inside bets.”
Outside bets are those that are placed outside the main number grid. One example are even-money bets, which are practically bets on 18 numbers. You can bet on black or red (as each number on the wheel corresponds to either black or red), low or high, and odd or even. You can clearly see the house advantage with these even-money bets, as no payouts are made when the ball falls on 0 or double zero.
Column bets are wagers on 12 numbers – choose from 12 that belong to the first, second, or third vertical row. Column bets pay 2 to 1, as do group bets. These are wagers on 12 numbers, too, but they refer to numbers on the first (1-12), second (13-24), or third (25-36) group of numbers.
There are also casinos which know about call bets, or several series of numbers which appear next to each other on the wheel. Players believe that betting on these brackets would increase their chances of winning, and this may be true especially if the wheel is biased.
Because of this, casinos make it a point to realign and rebalance their roulette wheels regularly to prevent experts from finding a loophole in the house advantage.
