Roulette is a game of chance where you place bets on numbers or propositions. The ball then spins around the wheel and lands in one of the pockets, determining the winning number and color.

Players wager with chips until the croupier announces “no more bets.” Each table is set up with different minimum and maximum bets.

Variations

Double Ball Roulette is a variant that uses two balls instead of one and offers the same types of bets as standard European Roulette games. However, the payouts are lower. Another variation is Key Bet Roulette, which expands betting options with novel features. Players can also choose to play Lightning Roulette, a game from Evolution Gaming that relies on multipliers to deliver huge payouts. The house edge here is 2.7%. Players can also try Triple Bonus Spin Roulette from IGT, which offers up to 1:12,000 for a straight bonus win.

Origins

There are many theories on the origin of roulette. Some people believe that it was invented by the 17th-century French math wizard Blaise Pascal as a byproduct of his work on perpetual motion machines. Others think it was created from other games that featured a wheel, such as the English game of Roly Poly and the Italian games hoca and portique. Others point to supposed Chinese ancestors of roulette and to Dominican monks who brought the game back from their travels to Europe. The truth is probably somewhere in between. Gambling on the spin of wheels has been around for centuries. Even the ancient Romans spun their chariot wheels on their sides. They just didn’t call it roulette. Almost any wheel-based game could be the progenitor of today’s modern version of roulette.