Jul 02 2008
Roulette, a classic gambling game
Roulette is a casino and gambling game named after the French word meaning “small wheel”. In the world of casino games, roulette is a classic, along with blackjack and craps. Roulette has been played in Europe since the 18th century, and online roulette games are popular now all over the world. Roulette is more popular in Europe than elsewhere. In the United States and the Caribbean islands, its popularity was superseded by others, notably craps, blackjack, and poker.
The roulette table is composed of two sections, the wheel itself and the betting layout, better known as the roulette layout. There are two styles of roulette tables. One has a single betting layout with the roulette wheel at one end, and the other has two layouts with the wheel in the centre. The wheel spins horizontally. Players bet on which red or black numbered compartment of a revolving wheel a small ball (spun in the opposite direction) will come to rest within. Bets are placed on a table marked to correspond with the compartments of the wheel. Roulette is a banking game, and all bets are placed against the bank - that is, the house, or the proprietor of the game. To determine the winning number and color, a croupier spins a wheel in one direction, then spins a ball in the opposite direction around a tilted circular track running around the circumference of the wheel. The ball eventually loses momentum and falls on to the wheel and into one of 37 (in European roulette) or 38 (in American roulette) colored and numbered pockets on the wheel.
The cloth covering with the betting areas on a roulette table is known as a “layout” and is printed on green baize. Heading the layout design is a space containing the figure 0 (European style) or the figures 0 and 00 (American style, although such wheels were used also in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries).
The main portion of the design is composed of 36 consecutively numbered rectangular spaces, alternately coloured red and black and arranged in three columns of 12 spaces each, beginning with 1 at the top and concluding with 36 at the bottom. Directly below the numbers are three blank spaces (on some layouts these are marked ?2 to 1? and are located on the players? side of the table). On either side of these or along one side of the columns are rectangular spaces marked ?1st 12,? ?2nd 12,? and ?3rd 12? on American-style layouts. On European-style layouts these terms are ?12p? (premiere), ?12m? (milieu), and ?12d? (derniere douzaine). Six more spaces are marked ?red? (rouge), ?black? (noir), ?even? (pair), ?odd? (impair), ?1?18? (low, or manque), and ?19?36? (high, or passe).
The roulette wheel consists of a solid wooden disk slightly convex in shape. Around its rim are metal partitions known as separators or frets, and the compartments or pockets between these are called canoes by roulette croupiers. Thirty-six of these compartments, painted alternately red and black, are numbered nonconsecutively from 1 to 36. On European-style wheels a 37th compartment, painted green, carries the sign 0, and on American wheels two green compartments on opposite sides of the wheel carry the signs 0 and 00. The wheel, its spindle perfectly balanced, spins smoothly in an almost frictionless manner.
