Roulette is a game of pure chance. Players place chips on a betting mat before the ball is spun around the wheel. Players can bet on specific numbers, groups of numbers, colors (red or black), odds, and evens.

While there are many betting systems that claim to beat the house edge, no system can overcome it completely.

Origins

The history of roulette is a bit hazy, but fanciful stories claim that it was invented by the 17th century French mathematician Blaise Pascal or by Dominican monks. In fact, similar in structure games with wheels had been played for a century or more before Roulette became popular at the end of the French Revolution. It was based on the English game of E-O (“Even-Odd”) and the Italian game of Hoca. The name of the game is actually French for’small wheel’.

Variations

There are several variations of roullete, and each of them offers different payouts and betting options. The French roulette is perhaps the most popular, since it has a traditional wheel that contains 37 pockets representing all the numbers from 0 to 36. These pockets are colored alternately in black and red, with the exception of the zero pocket, which is represented by a green color. This variation also has a different layout for the bets, so that winning straight bets will earn players a payout of 11:1, and winning split and street bets pay 2:1.