What is Roullete?

Roullete, which means “little wheel” in French, is a casino game with many betting options. It is easy enough for beginners to enjoy but has a surprising level of depth for serious betters.

A revolving dishlike device roulettewheel into which a ball is spun to come to rest in one of 37 or 38 compartments, numbered alternately red and black or with either one or two green zeros (American wheels have the additional two green compartments). The wheel is mounted on a spindle with metal separators called frets, and is painted white with alternating color stripes, usually red and black. The croupiers (dealers) place the chips on the table and spin the wheel.

When the wheel stops, if the ball has landed in a number that a player has bet on — or the corresponding color or odd/even or high/low symmetries of the numbers — that player wins. The dealer pays out the winning bets and clears the table of losing ones. Then the game begins anew with new bets placed by the players.

The game’s popularity has given rise to fanciful theories of its origin, including the 17th-century French mathematician Blaise Pascal and an ancient Chinese game, both of which were probably developed from the older games hoca and portique. In fact, the modern roulette wheel and layout were devised in France in about 1790.

To play roulette, a player gives the dealer his or her money and asks for “colour” (or the table’s minimum buy-in). The dealer will give the player coloured chips with a value equal to the amount of the buy-in. The chips are used to make individual bets on the numbers or symmetries of the numbers (as opposed to placing bets on groups of numbers). Some players like to watch their fellow gamblers, hoping that the other players know something they don’t or trying to copy them, but this is unlikely to improve a player’s odds more than coincidentally.