Roullete is one of the casino’s most popular games, offering glamour, mystery and excitement. Players place their chips on a roulette table and correctly guess which slot the ball will land in after the dealer spins the wheel. Although the game seems simple, there is a surprising level of depth for serious betters who understand the mathematical odds and physics involved.

The game originated in the 17th Century, possibly from a combination of older games such as hoca and portique, with a new feature introduced by the mathematician Blaise Pascal in the form of a special roulette wheel. Upon its release, the game quickly spread throughout Europe and was even a popular pastime at royal courts and gambling houses in the United States until it was banned from these areas due to rampant cheating and fraud.

Essentially, a rotatary disk (the ‘wheel’) is divided by metal partitions or “canoes”, with thirty-six of these compartments alternately painted red and black and numbered 1 to 36. An additional green compartment carries the number 0 on European wheels, while American tables have two extra green spaces marked 00.

Before the wheel is spun, bets are placed by laying down chips on a betting mat, with the precise placement of the chips indicating the desired wager. Bets can be made on individual numbers, a grouping of numbers, the color red or black, and whether the numbers are high (19-36) or low (1-18).

A player may also place a bet that covers multiple numbers, called a “street bet”, by placing a chip at the end of any row of three numbers on the table map. A single chip can also be placed in the middle of two numbers, indicating a bet on both of them, and players can wager up to six chips on a row for a bet on any grouping of twelve numbers, known as an “odd or even bet”.

Once the wheel has spun and a winning number is determined, the winning bets are paid out, and all losing bets are collected by the dealer and re-placed on the table. The process then repeats. When playing roulette, it is recommended to cash out winning bets as quickly as possible and only gamble with your predetermined bankroll; betting more than you can afford to lose will likely lead to disaster.