Roulette – a brief history and description

The game of Roulette (not to be mistaken with Russian Roulette – that is another story altogether) was believed to be invented in the 18^th century by Frenchman Blaise Pascal in his pursuit of making winning money fun via devising a contraption which moved consistently.

The game of Roulette has been recorded as early as 1796 in Paris. It was even elaborated in Jacques Lable’s book, La Roulette, ou le Jour.

To make the odds even more ludicrous, two enterprising gentlemen, (French of course) Francois and Louis Blanc began popularizing the single ‘0’ Roulette wheel style to compete with casinos implementing the more known ‘00’ way of playing.

Predictably, this game which is found in casinos all over the world, became all the rage across Europe and America, and if I may digress a little, depicted in countless movies. Case in point; that scene in ‘Indecent Proposal’ where Demi Moore’s and Woody Harrelson’s characters bet all their money on one final game – of course, they lost. If you ask me, they should have bought the toy 12” version from amazon.com and try it on for size. But that is not what we’ll be talking about today.

Now for the specifics.

What does a Roulette wheel look like? This oldest game, which the House always seems to win (could be the very thing that resulted in Adam and Eve’s banishment from heaven, forget the “Apple” story) is primarily divided into sectors, red alternated with black, and with numbers 1 to 36. The wheel also has green and in some cases, white sectors. In the United States, an additional 00 can be seen.

What do these numbers mean?

Because the American style Roulette guide layout is now the most played around the world, (the French way is now  mostly found in Monte Carlo; as jaded billionaires’ form of amusement) we shall attempt to disseminate and simplify this exciting game, so that by the end of this essay, your 5 year old will be an expert.

This magical wheel possesses 38 numbers due to the ‘00’. This simply means that the House basically has upped its (winning) edge by several percent – not good for you.

However, do not despair. Denial is a good thing.

Roulette has two areas for you to place bets. On the inside are the individual numbers, which are sequenced in 12 rows of 3 numbers and on the outside, contains spaces or boxes for the red/ black, and odd/ even numbers columns. And on top of these columns are the 0 and 00.

So far so good.

Each roulette table, like any other casino game, has both minimum and maximum bets (which are not allowed to be combined between inside and outside bets), and each player buys chips (to be played at the specific table only, and must be cashed when the game is over) of different colors to avoid confusion when placing bets. For instance, if the minimum bet is $10, you must place an equal amount of $5 each on the outside and inside.

There are many types of bets. The most common ones are:

• Straight up – betting on a single number
• Split bet – placing your chip/ s straddling the line between two numbers of your choice

You may also place your chips on a number that has already been picked by someone else. This explains the different colored chips given to all players.

The dealer spins the wheel (you cannot place anymore bets when this happens) and when it stops, you win when the indicator stops at you number.

Roulette is a game of luck, and the house almost always, has the highest edge.

But what is life without a few risks?

Spin Palace anyone?