Dec 22, 2008

Casino Roulette

• Roulette - The Game
• Roulette History
• Online Roulette
• Online Roulette - Softwares
• Roulette Wheel- the Number Sequence
• Roulette Betting
• Roulette Types of bets
• Inside Bets
• Outside Bets
• Roulette Payout Table (Roulette Odds)
• Roulette Table Layout
• House Edge
• Called Bets
• Roulette Strategies & Betting Tactics

Roulette- The Game

Roulette has been a popular gambling game for many years. I remember playing it as a child and for me the greatest excitement was to be the croupier, use the rake to clear the chips and spin the wheel. ‘Russian Roulette’ was brought to the attention of many when the film The Deerhunter showed captive American soldiers forced to take turns at firing a revolver at each other – only one bullet was in the spun chamber and so it was down to chance when the gun would discharge the live ammunition, hence ‘roulette’. (The ‘Russian’ element is obscure although there are legends dating from the 19th century that refer to the suicidal game.) Such is the popularity of roulette that there are novelty chocolates that incorporate a spinning wheel where one of the number contains hot chilli within, unsurprisingly called chilli chocolate roulette. Of course, it has gained amazing popularity as an online game and online roulette still has all the thrill of being at a casino table.

For serious gamblers it is a game played in a casino based on the number upon which a ball, rolling around a pocketed, numbered wheel that is spun, may land. The name derives from the French – ‘roule’ meaning round or wheel and the suffix ‘ette’, which gives it a diminutive value, so roulette means small wheel. Within the wheel are numbers, alternately colored red and black, from 1-37 (Europe) or 1-38 (USA) as well as a green for 0 or 00. The colored numbers are sunk into the wheel to form pockets into which the ball may fall when the momentum of the wheel spin has died. Only the croupier may spin the wheel and then add the ball in the opposite direction to the raised and tilted, ridged wheel track. The number upon which the ball falls is the winning color and number for any bets placed at the table. Colors and/or numbers may be the object of the bet, including the zero.

Game's History

No one really knows the precise origin of the game. With the Chinese fascination for everything circular and their love of gambling, some people claim it was brought from Tibet through China to Europe, specifically France, through merchant travels. Others have cited the mathematician Blaise Pascal as being responsible for the wheel in 1665 whilst investigating the properties of perpetual motion and friends seeing an opportunity for gaming with it gave birth to the modern game of roulette.

Several gambling games have possessed some elements similar to roulette. The old English games ‘Roly Poly’ with a bouncing, rolling ball (the actions live on in the nursery rhyme of the same name), and ‘E/O’ where odds or evens were marked on a wheel or the Italian game of the 17th century played with a ball and numbered cups, ‘Hoca’. Cardinal Mazarin took advantage of the popularity of the game and built casinos to raise money for the royal treasury of Kings Louis XIII and XIV. Biribi, or cavagnole, based on number stubs drawn from a bag may too have been an influence on the modern game of roulette. Even further back the Greeks are said to have spun an arrow over a shield and the Romans used a chariot wheel and a stick to make a gambling game similar to what we now recognize as the modern game of roulette.

Perhaps the earliest documented reference to roulette is in the regulations for New France (Canada) 1758 in which it is mentioned as one of the banned games along with dice, hoca and faro. It is thought to have made its appearance in its modern form in Paris in 1765 through its introduction by a French police official Gabriel Sartine who wished to combat the plague of cheats involved in gambling in the city at the time. In the 1801 novel by Jaques Lablee, there is a description of the current game in ‘La Roulette ou la Jour’ of a roulette wheel in 1796 in the Palais Royal.

Further legend suggests that the founder of casinos in Monte Carlo, Francois Blanc, entered into a satanic bargain for the secret of the wheel and sold his soul to the devil. This is believed by many to be true as the total of the numbers on the wheel add up to 666, such a spooky coincidence. (He, and his brother, speculated on the Bourse and served prison sentences for stock fraud before Francois’ incredible success after accepting the Prince of Monte Carlo’s invitation to operate his magnificent casino.) Then again, it may be the propaganda of those religious fanatics opposed to gambling or the rumour of a jealous rival. Mssr Blanc, referred to as ‘the most brilliant financier of his time’ by Lord Brougham, then High Chancellor of England, left a fortune when he died and established roulette as the game of the moneyed and elite society in the casinos of Monte Carlo.

By 1842 when the Blanc twins, Louis and Francois, had developed the single zero wheel – which increased the attraction to gamblers with the reduced house edge - gambling had been outlawed in France. They moved their gambling operations to casinos in Hamburg and Monte Carlo with great success. The popularity of roulette had not diminished; indeed it had grown and spread as French travellers to the US enjoyed the freedom to play the game on the paddle steamers of the Mississippi and the gambling dens of New Orleans. Apart from the introduction of the double zero and simplified layout in the American game, the wheel was also brought to the table top to prevent cheating, on both sides – operators and gamblers alike.

By the time the 20th century arrived the game of roulette was established primarily in the casinos of Monte Carlo in Europe for the single zero game and Las Vegas in America for the double zero game. Advances and improvements in travel soon saw the popularity increase further and more and more resorts began to offer roulette at their gaming tables so that it became available across the globe. Anywhere that wants to promote an ambience of opulence and class won’t feature the slots or card tables on their brochure covers, they generally have a shot of a roulette wheel with glamorous individuals placing their bets while the croupier is poised with a rake, waiting to call ‘no more bets’. It is an internationally recognized symbol and is an iconic image of wealth, risk and excitement.

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