Roulette is a game of chance where players place bets by placing chips on a betting mat. Each table usually carries a placard that describes the minimum and maximum bets.
A roulette wheel has a solid, convex disk with thirty-six metal compartments, called separators or frets. There are 18 red pockets and 18 black pockets, as well as one or two green pockets (depending on the version of the game). The chances of winning a straight bet are 1 in 37.
Origin
The origins of roulette are a bit fuzzy, but it is widely believed that the game originated in France. The most common theory is that the French mathematician Blaise Pascal invented the roulette wheel in 1655 as part of his attempts to produce a perpetual motion machine. Alternatively, the game may have been inspired by other games that were similar in structure to roulette, including the English game of Roly Poly and the Italian game of Hoca and Biribi.
Other fanciful stories claim that the game first came from China, where it was spread to France by Dominican monks. Regardless of its true origin, modern roulette is based on a combination of these older games and a gaming wheel that dates back to 1720.
Variations
There are many variations of roulette, each offering different payouts and betting options. European roulette is the most popular variant because it contains only one zero and offers a house edge lower than that of its American counterpart. Other variations include French Roulette, which adds two rules – En prison and La Partage – to the standard set of rules and has a house edge of 2.7%. Other games that offer different payouts include Lighting Roulette, which pays out up to 500x your bet and Triple Bonus Spin Roulette, which boasts a payout of 1:12,000 for a straight bonus win.