The game of Roulette wouldn’t exist without the iconic wheel. But did you know that the Roulette wheel itself was invented by mistake?
Yes, the centrepiece within a game of Roulette – the wheel – was invented by accident by mathematician and inventor Balise Pascal. Initially, Pascal was trying to invent the world’s first perpetual motion machine.
In his failings to create such a machine, the blueprints for this experiment became the beginnings of the wheel we all know today – the Roulette wheel!
And as they say, the rest is history.
But, how do you play this casino classic? Read on to find out.
What is Roulette?
Roulette is a classic casino game involving a spinning wheel, a ball, and a table.
The objective of any game, whether played digitally online, live Roulette online, or within land-based casinos, is to predict which numbered pocket the ball will land in after the wheel is spun.
The Wheel and the Table
Wheel Structure
In European Roulette, the wheel has 37 numbered pocketed slots, which consist of numbers 1-36 and a single zero (0), and 38 in American Roulette, which consists of numbers 1-36, a single zero (0), and a double zero (00).
Numbers are coloured alternately in red and black, with zeros in green.
The table
The table is marked with all the numbers found within the wheel and various sectors for placing different types of bets. This gives you various ways to place a wager on your prediction of the game.
Types of Bets
Inside Bets
- Straight-up bet – Betting on a single number. Holds odds of 35:1.
- Split bet – Betting on two adjacent numbers. Holds odds of 17:1.
- Street bet – Betting on three numbers in a horizontal line. Holds odds of 11:1.
- Corner bet – Betting on four numbers that form a square. Holds odds of 8:1.
- Line bet – Betting on six numbers forming two horizontal lines. Holds odds of 5:1.
Outside Bets
- Column bet – Betting on one of the three columns of numbers. Holds odds of 2:1.
- Dozen bet – Betting on one of the three sets of twelve numbers. Holds odds of 2:1.
- Red or black – Betting on the colour of the winning number. Holds odds of 1:1.
- Odd or even – Betting on whether the winning number is odd or even. Holds odds of 1:1.
- High or low – Betting on whether the number will be in the range 1-18 or 19-36. Holds odds of 1:1.
The Gameplay
- Placing bets – Once the dealer opens the betting window for the game, players are given a chance to place a chip(s) on the desired bet(s) on the table.
- Spinning the wheel – The dealer, known as the croupier, will close the betting window and spins the wheel in one direction and rolls the ball in the opposite direction.
- No more bets – Once the ball starts to slow down, the croupier announces “no more bets” and no further bets can be placed for the game.
- Conclusion – When the ball lands in a pocketed slot within the wheel, the croupier announces the winning number, colour, and odd/even status.
- Payouts – The croupier collects all chips from the table and pays out the correctly guessed bets according to the established odds.
Of course, Roulette is a game of chance that gives players a variety of betting options to place within a game, with no win guaranteed.