About Roulette:

Here, you can find out what roulette is, learn about different types of Roulette and read the history of the game.

Roulette is translated as small wheel from French. It is played at a special table with a wheel and ruled space to place bets. The wheel has 37 or 38 numbered slots. 36 of the slots are assigned a number from 1 to 36. These slots are printed on black or red background. In European roulette there is one more slot called zero, while most US roulette fields contain 0 and 00 slots. 0 and 00 belong neither to black nor to red color groups and are printed on green background.

Croupier spins the wheel and rolls a ball along the outside edge, so when the wheel slows down, the ball falls to one of the slots. Players may bet on a specific number or group of numbers, and if the number of the slot where the ball stops corresponds to the group or a number chosen by the player, the player wins.

If a player loses, he forfeits his bet; otherwise he takes his bet back and receives a payout. If the bet was placed on a single number it pays 35 to 1, bets on 12 numbers groups pay 2 to 1 and 18 number groups (including color and odd/even groups) 1 to 1.

Roulette History

Roulette was first introduced in 17th century by French mathematician Blaise Pascal. Pascals roulette did not have zero and therefore had a 0 percent house edge. In 1842 the missing zero was added to adopt roulette for casinos by Frenchmen Francois and Louis Blanc. In 19th century, roulette was brought to the US but Americans were not satisfied with the 2.7 percent house edge of French roulette and added a second zero, which in some forms of early American roulette appears as an American eagle.

Throughout the 19th century roulette spread all over the old and the new world becoming incredibly popular. Louis Blanc, one of the inventors of modern casino roulette, has established the very first casinos in Monte Carlo that generated enormous revenues. The legend says that he bargained with the devil to bring roulette to this world, because the sum of all numbers on the roulette wheel is neither more nor less than 666, the number of the beast.

Roulette Types

Only two types of roulette exist: European roulette (also called French roulette) and American roulette. The most significant difference between them is that European roulette wheel has one zero, and American roulette has two zeroes (0 and 00), accordingly European roulette has a house edge of 2.7 percent, and American roulette 5.4 percent.

American roulette table is much smaller than European one. To clear out the chips and to distribute winnings, European roulette croupiers use a long tool called rake, while American roulette croupiers do it by hand. The chips are also different. In American roulette each player has his own non-value chip of a special color. The value of personal chips is determined at the time of the purchase. These chips are cashed in at the roulette table. In European roulette standard casino chips are used and the croupier is in charge of remembering whom the bets belong to.