Roullete is a casino game in which you bet on numbers or groups of numbers on a betting table. You can choose from a range of different bet types, including individual numbers, various groupings, colors red or black, and odds or evens. There are a number of variations to the game, but the three most popular are American, European and French roulette, each with subtle differences that can increase or decrease your winning chances.
While fanciful stories have attributed it to the 17th-century mathematician Blaise Pascal, and to a Dominican monk in the 18th century, roulette actually originated in France around the late 1700s. It first appeared in gambling dens throughout the country and spread rapidly across Europe, where it became the preferred game for high rollers in Monte Carlo. When it reached the United States, the French double-zero wheel gave way to an American single-zero version, and the game quickly became a mainstay at new casinos and illegal gambling dens.
Today, roulette continues to draw large crowds at online and land-based casinos. It has one of the lowest house edges in the casino industry and is a favorite among new players. However, it doesn’t have the popularity of games like slot machines or video poker. In fact, it is losing ground to other casino games like blackjack and baccarat, which attract high-rollers who can afford to play with higher stakes.
The roulette wheel consists of a solid wooden disk, slightly convex in shape, with a series of metal compartments or ‘canoes’ that are painted alternately black and red. Thirty-six of these compartments, called’strates’ by the croupiers, are numbered consecutively from 1 to 36. There are also two green compartments, marked ‘0’ and ’00’ on American-style wheels, while the French-style wheel has only one zero.
When you start a roulette game, the dealer gives each player a set of special chips that have no value outside the table and are used only for this purpose. When a bet is placed, the dealer clears the table of losing chips and then places a marker on the winning number. Winning bets are paid, and the process repeats.