Roulette: An Introduction

Roulette is a game of chance in which the player, sat at a roulette table, bets on a number, a colour or a collection of numbers that they hope will be drawn. The drawing of the numbers is affected with the help of a ball thrown into a circular recipient which is surrounded by numbers in different colours. The game is very popular in casinos, both online and in bricks & mortar casinos.

Roulette first made its debut in the 17th century in Italy.

The Roulette (this is the actual wheel):

 

 

A rotation table, constructed from a finely machined brass, inserted in a basin of inlaid wood. The basin carries on the surface some chicanes in brass which are designed to capture the ball once it has been thrown into the wheel and begins to lose momentum.

37 numbered boxes, from 0 to 36, which form a unit when taken together with the rotary table, and which alternate in colour between red and black, except the 0 which is green.

The Ball:
The ball used to be made of ivory, but today it is made from a Teflon resin. The croupier throws the ball in the inverse direction to the spin of the rotary table (the direction of the spin of both the table and the ball are alternated after each number has been drawn), and which will stop on a number on the roulette wheel.

The Roulette Table:

 

On the roulette table there are boxes which correspond to the sections on the wheel, both the colours and the numbers are all accounted for, in addition, there are a number of boxes which correspond to different types of bet that can be made in roulette. There are two different types of roulette and the table pictured here is an example of American Roulette.

The Croupier:
The croupier is an employee of the casino in which you are playing and who is charged with the task of looking after the players and of administrating the actions needed in roulette, such as spinning the wheel and throwing the ball, the croupier will also announce the various stages of the game, for example, "no more bets".

And the croupier will also announce the numbers that have been drawn and arrange the return of money to the winners, and taking the losses from the losers.

The Chips:
The chips are tokens which represent different amounts of money that players buy from the casinos cashiers.

Players deposit their chips on the boxes on the roulette table that correspond to the types of bet that they want to make. For example, if a player wants to bet that the number 2 will come out they will place a chip on the box marked ‘2', if they want to bet that the next number is going to be an even number, then they will place their chips on the box marked ‘evens'.

If the player wins the bet the croupier will distribute the appropriate number of chips, they never return actual cash.

Player's Returns on Various Bets:

Bet on a number: 35 times the bet
Bet on two numbers: 17 times the bet
Bet on three numbers: 11 times the bet
Bet on four numbers: 8 times the bet
Bet on six numbers: 5 times the bet
Bet on 12 numbers: 2 times the bet Bet on a simple bet (Black or red- odds or evens): 1 times the bet

If the ball lands on the zero then the bets placed on the ‘first dozen', ‘second dozen' and ‘third dozen' or on the columns then the player loses the bet, and on the simple bets then half the wager is lost.

Casinos Gains:
They take all the losing bets.

There are 37 cases and the casino redistributes 35 times the bet.

House or Casino Advantage:
The advantage of the house an average amount of the players loses. If the player bets on a single number there is a possibility of 1/37 that the player will win and if they do then they will receive 35 times their bet, and there is a 36/37 chance of losing. The advantage of the house is thus:

-1 x 36/37 + 35 x 1/37= -0,027 (2.70%).

This is for European roulette, but you can easily substitute the number to work this out.

If the zero is drawn and the croupier says ‘French' the rule is ‘bet in prison' which permits players that have bet on a simple chance bet (red, black, odds, evens) can either recuperate half their bet, or can put the entire bet in prison for the following roulette spin. This rule lowers the house advantage by half, so 1.35%.

If the zero is drawn and the croupier calls ‘English' the ‘put in prison' rule does not exist. The players who bet on the simple chance automatically get half their bet returned to them. The advantage of the house is thus 1.35% for the simple bets.

For American Roulette, where there is an extra case on the wheel (00) the house advantage is:

-1 x 37/38 + 35 x 1/38= -0.0526 (thus 5.26%).

Different Types of Roulette:

1. French or European roulette has a wheel containing 37 numbers.

2. English roulette, which is set out the same as the French version but is played differently, the number of players, is limited and each has their own colour chips.

3. American roulette, that is different to the other two by the cylinder upon which the numbers are set out differently and there is an extra slot, double zero or 00.

4. Mexican roulette is a replication of the American version but also has a triple zero 000.

The different pay outs and winning chances are the same for the different games; obviously the least favourable game for the player is the Mexican variation.

Martingales, Betting Strategies, Roulette Strategies:
Mathematicians have explored different methods to beat the roulette wheel. These methods have been given different names: The Martingale Technique, betting systems, Hawk Method, Labouchere Method, D'Alembert Method.

The casinos have enforced betting limits (or maximum bet levels) in order to counter the use of these systems which then become inoperable. It is scientifically proven that these methods do not permit the player to gain an advantage over the casino. But they are still interesting and worth trying at least once, if only to disprove them on a personal basis.