Roulette is a game of chance played on a table marked off with numbers 1 to 36 and a single zero or two (or more, on some American tables) and having in the center a revolving dishlike device, a roulette wheel, into which a small ball, called a “roulette,” is sent spinning. The ball will fall into one of a series of compartments on the wheel, which are painted alternately red and black or are colored green for “zero” or purple for “double zero.” Bets can be placed on a specific number, various groupings of numbers, the colors, whether a number is odd or even, and other characteristics. When the ball settles in a number, the player who has bet on that number wins.
The game originated in the 17th century and was credited to French mathematician Blaise Pascal. It reached its present form by about 1790 and became popular in casinos and gambling dens throughout Europe.
To play roulette, you give the dealer cash or chips that represent a specific value for betting on the game and ask the dealer for “colour.” The dealer will give you coloured roulette chips equal to the value you have given them. The coloured chips are used to differentiate between bettors, and players are advised to separate during the course of a game.
There are many betting systems for roulette, but no system has been proven to consistently beat the house. An example is the Martingale strategy, which entails doubling the amount of money you bet after every loss. However, this type of system is not recommended and should be avoided. A group of physics postgraduates, the Eudaemons, used theoretical insights and a rudimentary computer concealed in a shoe to win at roulette in Nevada in the 1970s, but they did not publish their findings.