Roullete (pronounced: “ROL-lay”) is a casino game in which you bet on numbers, groupings of numbers or colors red or black. A spinning wheel determines your fate – you either win or lose. The game’s history is somewhat mysterious, but some historians have credited the game to the 17th century French mathematician Blaise Pascal. Other historians believe that it grew out of the older games hoca and portique, and evolved into its present form in Europe about 1790.
Prior to the spin of the wheel, players place their bets by placing chips on a betting mat. They are then tossed a ball into the rotating wheel, and when it comes to rest a winning bet is paid out according to its odds. Players can make both inside and outside bets on the table. Bets on six or fewer numbers are called “Inside bets” and those on 12 or more are known as “Outside bets”.
The roulette wheel consists of a solid, slightly convex wooden disk with compartments around its edge that alternately contain red and black colored segments. Thirty-six of these compartments are numbered consecutively from 1 to 36; on European wheels there is an extra green segment labelled 0 while American roulette tables have two additional green segments marked 00.
The wheel is spun by a dealer, and the ball falls into one of the compartments. The payout for a straight-up bet is 37 to 1 if it wins, and the player’s wagered chips are left on the table in case they are not won. There is a significant house edge on most bets, however, and it is not possible to beat the game in the long run.