Roullete is a game of chance where players place chips on a betting mat before the ball is spun. After the ball settles into a pocket marked by a number, the winning bets are paid and the losing ones get cleared off the table first.

Roulette originated in France and has been played for hundreds of years. Its origins are debated and some suggest that it was invented by French mathematician Blaise Pascal. In reality, it is believed to have been derived from the older games hoca and portique.

The wheel

The roulette wheel is a solid wooden disk with divisions numbered from 1 to 36 in an apparent random pattern and alternate red and black colors. There is also a green division on American wheels that is numbered 0.

It has a spindle and a ball that spins inside the wheel. A croupier throws the ball into the spinning wheel and it then rotates until it comes to rest in a compartment containing one of the numbered pockets on the wheel.

Players can choose to place a variety of different types of bets on the roulette wheel. These include bets on various groupings of numbers, color red or black, odd or even numbers, and more.

Bets on six numbers or less are called “inside bets” and those on 12 or more numbers are called “outside bets”. The house edge in the game is not as wide as in craps but is still high.

In a traditional European wheel, the zero is red and the double zero is black. However, in the United States, the double zero is green. This choice is due to the fact that a double zero reduces the house edge.

The numbers on the roulette wheel are arranged in an alternating sequence from 1 to 36, except for the green zero and its two adjacent compartments. In addition, the wheel has a third green compartment, which is not numbered, but on American wheels it is a double zero.

There are also several other interesting symmetries in the European version of the roulette wheel, for example, 29-7-28-12-35-3-26-0-32 contains no numbers between 13 and 24. This is called the second dozen, and it can be bet on with odds of 2-1.

Getting started in Roulette

Before the roulette wheel is spun, players can place their bets on a betting mat by placing a chip at the precise location indicated on the table. There are many different bets available, including split bets, which straddle a line between two numbers on the layout.