Roulette is a casino game played with a wheel and a table layout. Players place their chips on the table until the croupier (dealer) announces no more bets.

The roullete wheel contains 37 or 38 numbered pockets, including a single zero on European wheels and two green compartments on American ones. Players make bets by placing chips on the numbered section of the table.

Origin

Various historians have speculated about the origin of roulette. Some have claimed it was invented by 17th-century French mathematician Blaise Pascal while he experimented with perpetual motion machines. Others believe it was invented by the Chinese and passed to France by Dominican Monks. Still, others point to English games like roly poly and even-odd as its precursors.

Whatever the truth may be, roulette is undoubtedly of European origin. Its name derives from the Latin rotella, which means little wheel. It became popular in Europe, eventually making its way to America. It is a game that is played on a spinning wheel with 38 (or 37 on modern European/Latin American tables) pockets marked with numbers and colors. Players place bets by placing chips on a table with specific markings that correspond to their chosen wagers.

Variations

There are several different variations of roulette that differ in terms of house edge, odds, and payouts. The most popular among them is European roulette, which offers the highest payouts of all basic roulette games and has a house edge of 2.7%. Another variant of the game is French roulette, which has more 0s and allows players to use a betting strategy called ‘En prison’ or ‘La Partage’. Other variations of the game include Lighting Roulette from Evolution Gaming, which relies on multipliers and Triple Bonus Spin Roulette from IGT, which has a 1:12,000 payout for a straight bonus win.