Roulette has provided glamour, mystery, and excitement to casino-goers since the 17th century. Although the game is relatively simple, a good understanding of the rules and the proper strategy can reap high rewards. In addition to the standard single-number bets, players may also place bets on various groupings of numbers, whether a number is odd or even, or the color red or black.
The game is played on a table marked with a grid of 36 evenly divided squares or rectangles. Each rectangle contains alternating red and black numbers. There are also one or two zeros (on European wheels) and a green compartment for the double-zero, as well as a compartment for the Logo, or “00” on American wheels. A croupier spins a ball into the wheel and it comes to rest in one of the compartments. The dealer then marks the winning bets and pays the winners.
In order to win at roulette, it’s important to know the odds of each type of bet. There are two main categories of bets, inside and outside bets. Inside bets are placed on specific numbered pockets and usually have higher payouts than outside bets. Inside bets include straight-up, split, street, corner, and six-line. Outside bets are placed on broader groups of numbers and have lower payouts, but better odds of hitting. Outside bets include red/black, odd/even, high/low, dozens, and column.
Each player is given six to eight sets of different colored chips, each set consisting of 300 chips. Each chip has a value printed on it, but this is not always clear to the players. The value is actually the buy-in divided by the number of chips received, and a player places a token on his bet to indicate this value.
While the game’s history is a bit murky, it’s commonly believed that the game was invented by 17th-century French mathematician Blaise Pascal as part of his attempts to create a perpetual motion machine. He then adapted the concept to create a game of chance and it became very popular in Paris.
Several other casino games evolved from the basic game of Roulette, including the American version of it that was developed in gambling dens across America. It was during this time that the Roulette wheel was moved to the top of the table to prevent devices from being hidden in it and a simplified betting layout was introduced. Because of rampant cheating, the roulette table and wheel were later made much simpler, leading to the modern game we know today. In the 1970s, a group of physics postgraduates called the Eudaemons used theoretical insights and a rudimentary computer concealed in a shoe to beat the house at roulette in Nevada, but were never fully able to reveal their methods.