The roulette wheel is a solid wooden disk with metal compartments called frets or pockets. The compartments are painted alternately red and black and numbered non-consecutively from 1 to 36. An additional green pocket carries the sign 0 on European-style wheels.

The croupier spins the wheel and sends a small ball into one of the numbered pockets. If the ball lands on your predicted number or grouping, you win a payout based on the odds.

Origins

The history of roulette is a bit mysterious. There are a variety of theories about how the game came to be. Some historians believe that it was invented in 1655 by a French mathematician, Blaise Pascal, while he was trying to create a perpetual motion machine. Others believe that it originated from earlier games such as hoca and portique.

The game became popular in Paris at the end of the French Revolution and appeared in the famous Monte Carlo casino. At this time, the wheel had a double-zero pocket, but after the Blanc brothers introduced single-zero roulette at their casino in 1860, it became popular throughout Europe. It is also thought that the game was brought to America by French migrants. Other games that are considered precursors to roulette include roly poly and bassette.

Variations

Roulette has many variations, each with its own unique features. Some are based on specific themes, such as Astro Roulette, which replaces traditional numbers with zodiac signs and offers themed betting options. Others are based on different rules and probabilities. For instance, in a variation involving consecutive bets, turn order influences the probability of losing each pull. However, players are not exclusively concerned with odds, expected value and house edge; they also look for a pleasant gambling experience and variation contributes to this. Some variations are more popular than others. Roulette Royale, for example, is a progressive jackpot version of European Roulette with a single-zero wheel.