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The Roulette

The roulette is one of the oldest and most beloved casino games of all times. The name of the roulette comes from French and it means "small wheel". The roulette is consisted of 37 or 38 individual pockets in which the ball must land. Each of the pockets is numbered and is either black red or green.

Each of the main pockets is numbered between 1 to 36, and each is either black or red, pocket number one is red. There are also two or one extra pockets represented by 00 or 0 and colored green. The European roulette has traditionally only one green pocket, while the American roulettes usually have two green pockets. If you are betting on a single number you can win 35 times your original bet in addition to the original bet, resulting in a win of 36 times of the first bet. In the game of roulette you may bet on specific numbers, combinations of numbers, colors, odds or evens and even ranges.

The first roulette was invented in France by the mathematician Basil Pascal in the 17th century. Later on, also in France, the number 0 was added to the roulette in order to increase the house advantage. Without the zero's the odds are pretty fair to the house and the gambler. The roulette reached America during the beginning of the 18th century and there an additional pocket numbered 00 was added to the roulette to further increase the house odds. During the early 1800's the roulette has became one of the most popular casino games. It is sometimes referred to as "The game of kings" as an association of the Monaco royal casinos.

The American and European roulettes differ mostly in the advantage they give to the house but also in the size of the table and the way chips are valued. The house advantage is 2.7 percent in a European roulette and 5.4 percent in an American roulette.

Phil Martin, Editor 27/09/2005