Roulette is one of the casino’s most popular games. It is a game that relies on luck, but also offers a surprising level of depth for serious betters. In this article, we will give you a quick and easy guide to this iconic casino game so that you can enjoy playing it as much as possible.
The history of roulette starts more than 300 years ago, at the end of the 17th century, with French physicist Blaise Pascal. He invented the wheel in his quest for a perpetual motion machine, but it did not gain popularity until later.
In the early 1800s, the modern roulette wheel was developed in France. It featured red for the single zero and black for the double zero, which is a change that was made in order to make it more clear for players to differentiate the two sides of the wheel.
A roulette wheel consists of a solid, slightly convex disk that is divided into thirty-six compartments (called frets by croupiers) that alternate between red and black. The numbers on European-style wheels are numbered nonconsecutively from 1 to 36, and a second green compartment on American-style roulette wheels carries the number 0.
To play roulette, you must place your chips on a special betting mat with precise locations for each type of bet. The bets are grouped together on the betting grid according to their odds of winning, with the bets that cover six or fewer numbers being called “Inside bets” while the bets covering 12 or more are known as “Outside bets.”
The cylinder in which the ball spins is a precision engineered and balanced piece of machinery. It is spun by a small, lightweight metal or ceramic ball that weighs no more than a ping pong ball. The best professional roulette balls are made of ivory, but in recent times these have been replaced by synthetic materials that resemble the look and feel of ivory. The different dimensions and weight of the ball have a noticeable effect on the way the wheel tracks the ball, and whether it jumps unpredictably before landing in a compartment.
When you play roulette, always bet within your budget and cash out your winnings as quickly as possible to avoid using your winnings on future rounds. It’s also a good idea to avoid watching other players, as this can lead to misjudgment and possibly ruin your chances of making money.