Roullete (pronounced ro-leh-tey) is the game of chance where bets are placed on numbers or groups of numbers and the payouts are determined by their probability. It has offered glamour and mystery to casino-goers since the 17th century and can be a thrilling experience when played correctly. The game’s rules are simple and the bets are easy to place. However, it has a depth that will challenge even the most serious of bettors.
In the game, a small ball is dropped in the opposite direction of a spinning wheel that has various red and black numbered compartments into which it will fall when it slows down and comes to rest. All bets are against the house and are made on the table, with players predicting which numbered pocket the ball will land in. Each bet type has its own odds and payouts.
Before the game begins, each player gives the dealer his or her money and asks for color chips. The dealer will give the player a set of colored chips, which represents the value of the buy-in. Each player also gets a special marker to identify his or her color on the table map. This allows the dealer to separate each player’s chips from those of other players, a feature designed to prevent cheating.
During the course of the game, the croupier, or dealer, will spin the roulette wheel and throw the ball into it. The players may continue placing bets as the ball bounces around and eventually settles into a number slot on the roulette wheel. When that happens, the player who made that bet wins.
The wheel itself is a solid wooden disk, slightly convex in shape and painted alternately red and black. Around the edge of the wheel are metal compartments, called frets or canoes by roulette croupiers. Thirty-six of these compartments, painted red and black, are numbered consecutively from 1 to 36. On European-style wheels, a 37th compartment, painted green, carries the sign 0. Two more green compartments, painted 0 and 00, are on American-style roulette wheels. Despite its apparent randomness, the numbers are distributed with an order that ensures no number is repeated in adjacent sections of the wheel. The wheel is also carefully constructed so that the distribution of odd and even numbers will be roughly equal.
