Roulette History

Roulette is a French game invented in the 18th century by Blaise Pascal, a crazy inventor who wanted to find the perpetual motion. After engineering a device in a form of a big wheel for his experiments, one of his friends came with an idea to use this device for gambling. The name itself means “little wheel” in French and it is one of the most popular casino games of chance. Roulette rules are not very difficult. We can distinguish two main types of Roulette: American roulette wheel and European roulette wheel. In 1842 roulette was played in the first Paris casino established by Francois and Luis Blanc. Luis and his brother François introduced the single 0 style roulette wheel in order to compete against other casinos offering the traditional wheel with single and double zero house pockets. They also founded the first casinos in Monte Carlo. The legend says that Luis and François sold a soul to devil for the secret of roulette because the total sum of all the numbers on roulette wheels equals 666. In United States roulette was introduced by French emigrants. American casinos were not satisfied with the amount of winnings in roulette. In order to make better profits they added double zero. This is the reason why European roulette is still the most popular roulette version.

 

European Roulette Table	American Roulette Table

 

The Play

To play the game players use chips to place bets on what numbers they think will come up. The chip are placed on a betting mat, their place depending on the type of bet the player wants to make. After all bets are made a dealer spins the roulette wheel in one direction and rolls a small ball in the opposite direction, which will fall into one of the slots containing the same numbers as on the mat.

American Roulette Rules

The betting area start with the 0 and 00 at the top of the layout and goes through numbers 1 to 36 to the end of the table. When either zero turns up, all bets (excluding a direct bet on the selected zero) are slot. This means that the odds are worse for the punter and the Casino's cut is increased. Because of that American Roulette is not really popular. Especially among online players who can easily access European Roulette in almost every online casino.

European Roulette Rules

There is only one 0 which means the punter's odds are a little better. Additionally, European roulette often uses the „en prison” and „la partage” rules which are really favourable to the players.

En Prison

This rule applies only to 1 to 1 bets. If a zero turn up on the roulette, you have two options:

- get back half of your bet; - imprison the bet, i.e. leave it on the table for the next spin. If zero turn up again, or a number that does not match the bet, you lose the whole bet, but if the results matches the bet, your money is returned.

La Partage

Similarly to en prison, la partake takes effect when a zero turns up, but this time you are not given a choice, but simply get back half of your bet.

It is really advisable to look for casinos that use these rules as they really favour the player.

Roulette Bets

 

Bet	Description	Odds	Probability (European)
Outside Bets
Even Odd Bet	Placed on fields „even” or „odd” and covers 18 numbers. Zero is not covered.	1 to 1	48.65%
Red Black Bet	Placed on fields „red” or „black” and covers 18 numbers. Zero is not covered.	1 to 1	48.65%
High Low Bet	Placed on fields „1-18” or „19-36” and covers 18 numbers.	1 to 1	48.65%
Dozen Bet	Placed on fields „1st 12”, „2nd 12”, or „3rd 12” and covers 12 numbers.	2 to 1	32.43%
Column Bet	Placed on field at the end of vertical column and covers all columns (12 numbers). Zero is not covered.	2 to 1	32.43%
Inside Bets
Six-Line Bet	Placed on the end of line between two rows. Bet covers the 6 numbers in two adjacent rows.	5 to 1	16.22%
Corner Bet	Placed on the common point of four adjacent numbers and covers all of them.	8 to 1	10.81%
Street    Bet	Placed on the end of row and covers this row (3 numbers).	11 to 1	8.11%
Split    Bet	Placed between two numbers and covers them.	17 to 1	5.41%
Straight Bet	Placed on a single number field and covers only one number.	35 to 1	2.70%

Additionally, if you are playing American Roulette, the following bet can be made:

 

Bet	Description	Odds	Probability(American)
Basket Bet	Placed on the corners of 0, 00 and the upper line of 2, it covers 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3. This bet has a 7.89% house edge and is the worst odd you can possibly make.	6 to 1	13.16%

Roulette Strategy

There is no real strategy based on some mathematical equations that can be employed while playing a game of chance such as Roulette. Anyone that tries to sell some amazing betting systems and playing strategies is simply trying to rip people off their money.