Roulette

January 23, 2010 / admin /

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The first Roulette wheel was invented by Blaise Pascal as an attempt at a perpetual motion device in the 17th Century, only later becoming a game developed in the country of France. The resulting game was a combination of an English wheel game and an Italian board game, growing quite popular in Paris before it began to spread across the world. The allure of the spinning wheel, strong luck factor and excitement have helped Roulette, a French word meaning ‘little wheel’, achieve its nick name The King of Casino Games all across the globe. There are two primary versions of Roulette, one version native to Europe and the other to the Americas. In the European edition there are 37 pockets and only one zero for the bank to win while in the American version there are 38 pockets and a double zero wheel which is the most prevalent form of Roulette today.

The Roulette wheel is set at an angle and features the number 0 or 00 along with 1 through either 37 or 38, depending upon the version being played. Each number corresponds with a color, either red or black. For numbers 1 through 10 and 19 through 28, the odd numbers are red and the even numbers are black while the opposite is true for numbers 11 through 18 and 29 through 36. Either one or two green pockets are present for zero and double zero. When playing the game, players put down their bets on either a single number, a color, a range of numbers or whether the final number will be even or odd. The croupier at the Rolette table will spin the wheel in one direction and then spin the ball in the opposite direction through a track that encircles the wheel. Gradually, the ball slows until it drops into one of the pockets. All bets placed in Roulette are paid out based on the casino’s probability chart and there are generally both minimum and maximum bets enforced at the table. When a winning number and color is revealed, the dealer will sweep in all of the losing bets and then pay any winners before the next spin starts up.