Roulette is a casino game where a ball is dropped onto a revolving wheel that has numbered pockets. Players place chips on a betting mat to make bets on which number the ball will land in.
There are different types of bets in roulette with varying odds and payouts. Inside bets are placed on individual numbers while outside bets are made on groups of numbers.
Origin
While there are many theories as to the origin of roulette, the game that has become known throughout the world is generally agreed to have emerged in 17th century France. It is thought that it combined elements of Roly Poly and Even-Odd, both games involving betting on the outcome of a spinning wheel, with Biribi, an Italian game similar to lottery tickets or Hoca. It is also possible that a version of the game played with 36 numbers rather than 38 (on modern European/Latin American tables) was an earlier predecessor. There are also fanciful stories that it was invented by the celebrated French mathematician Blaise Pascal and transmitted to France by Dominican monks. However, the first written mention of the game was in a document that included it among a number of gambling regulations banned from New France in 1758.
Variations
There are many different roulette variations that you can play. For example, Double Ball Roulette is played on a standard European wheel and offers the same types of bets but with lower payouts. Lighting Roulette is another variation of the game that uses multipliers to deliver big payouts. Finally, Triple Bonus Spin Roulette from IGT is a variant that allows players to collect payouts of up to 1:12,000 for a straight bonus win. All these variations feature a standard house edge of 2.7%.