Roulette
Roulette is a classic casino game dating back to the 18th century in France. The word roulette is a French word meaning ‘small wheel’. Roulette’s history is rich and deep and the game has seen several facelifts over the years to reach the current game we see today in casinos around the world.
The object is simple; players bet on either a number, range of numbers, the colour red or black, or whether the number is odd or even. In order to determine the winning number and colour a croupier, casino employee who takes bets and pays out bets to winners, spins a wheel in one direction then spins a small ball in the other direction around a tilted track. Depending on whether you are playing European, 37 numbers or American, 38 numbers, the ball will stop spinning and land on one of the numbers.
Roulette has long been one of the only casino games people feel they can legitimately beat, and sometimes they have. Ponder this, in 1873; Joseph Jaggers of UK along with six other culprits took the Monte Carlo casino for more than $325,000. How did they do it, they clocked all the roulette wheels and found one wheel to show significant bias, meaning they were able to time the exact moment the ball would land and predict it every time.
Roulette Odds Table (American)
| Bet name |
Winning spaces |
Payout |
| 0 |
0 |
35 to 1 |
| 00 |
00 |
35 to 1 |
| Straight up |
Any single number |
35 to 1 |
| Row 00 |
0, 00 |
17 to 1 |
| Split |
any two adjoining numbers vertical or horizontal |
17 to 1 |
| Trio |
0, 1, 2 or 00, 2, 3 |
11 to 1 |
| Street |
any three numbers horizontal (1, 2, 3 or 4, 5, 6 etc.) |
11 to 1 |
| Corner |
any four adjoining numbers in a block
(1, 2, 4, 5 or 17, 18, 20, 21 etc. ) |
8 to 1 |
| Five Number Bet |
0, 00, 1, 2, 3 |
6 to 1 |
| Six Line |
any six numbers from two horizontal rows
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 etc.) |
5 to 1 |
| 1st Column |
1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, 34 |
2 to 1 |
| 2nd Column |
2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29, 32, 35 |
2 to 1 |
| 3rd Column |
3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36 |
2 to 1 |
| 1st Dozen |
1 through 12 |
2 to 1 |
| 2nd Dozen |
13 through 24 |
2 to 1 |
| 3rd Dozen |
25 through 36 |
2 to 1 |
| Odd |
1, 3, 5, ..., 35 |
1 to 1 |
| Even |
2, 4, 6, ..., 36 |
1 to 1 |
| Red |
1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12,
14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23,
25, 27, 30, 32, 34, 36 |
1 to 1 |
| Black |
2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11,
13, 15, 17, 20, 22, 24,
26, 28, 29, 31, 33, 35 |
1 to 1 |
| 1 to 18 |
1, 2, 3, ..., 18 |
1 to 1 |
| 19 to 36 |
19, 20, 21, ..., 36 |
1 to 1 |
Note also that 0 and 00 are neither odd nor even in this game. |
