roulette, (from French: “small wheel”), gambling game in which players bet on which red
or black numbered compartment of a 🍎 revolving wheel a small ball (spun in the opposite
direction) will come to rest within. Bets are placed on a 🍎 table marked to correspond
with the compartments of the wheel. It is played in casinos worldwide. Roulette is a
banking 🍎 game, and all bets are placed against the bank—that is, the house, or the
proprietor of the game. As a 🍎 big-time betting game, it has had its popularity
superseded in the United States and the Caribbean islands by others, notably 🍎 craps,
blackjack, and poker. Fanciful stories about the origin of roulette include its
invention by the 17th-century French mathematician Blaise 🍎 Pascal, by a French monk, and
by the Chinese, from whom it was supposedly transmitted to France by Dominican monks.
🍎 In reality, roulette was derived in France in the early 18th century from the older
games hoca and portique, and 🍎 it is first mentioned under its current name in 1716 in
Bordeaux. Following several modifications, roulette achieved its present layout 🍎 and
wheel structure about 1790, after which it rapidly gained status as the leading game in
the casinos and gambling 🍎 houses of Europe. During the years 1836 to 1933, roulette was
banned in France.
Equipment The roulette table is composed of 🍎 two sections, the wheel
itself and the betting layout, better known as the roulette layout. There are two
styles of 🍎 roulette tables. One has a single betting layout with the roulette wheel at
one end, and the other has two 🍎 layouts with the wheel in the centre. The wheel spins
horizontally. Heading the layout design, which is printed on green 🍎 baize, is a space
containing the figure 0 (European style) or the figures 0 and 00 (American style,
although such 🍎 wheels were used also in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries). The
main portion of the design is composed 🍎 of 36 consecutively numbered rectangular spaces,
alternately coloured red and black and arranged in three columns of 12 spaces each,
🍎 beginning with 1 at the top and concluding with 36 at the bottom. Directly below the
numbers are three blank 🍎 spaces (on some layouts these are marked “2 to 1” and are
located on the players’ side of the table). 🍎 On either side of these or along one side
of the columns are rectangular spaces marked “1st 12,” “2nd 12,” 🍎 and “3rd 12” on
American-style layouts. On European-style layouts these terms are “12p” (première),
“12m” (milieu), and “12d” (dernière douzaine). 🍎 Six more spaces are marked “red”
(rouge), “black” (noir), “even” (pair), “odd” (impair), “1–18” (low, or manque), and
“19–36” (high, 🍎 or passe). The roulette wheel consists of a solid wooden disk slightly
convex in shape. Around its rim are metal 🍎 partitions known as separators or frets, and
the compartments or pockets between these are called canoes by roulette croupiers.
Thirty-six 🍎 of these compartments, painted alternately red and black, are numbered
nonconsecutively from 1 to 36. On European-style wheels a 37th 🍎 compartment, painted
green, carries the sign 0, and on American wheels two green compartments on opposite
sides of the wheel 🍎 carry the signs 0 and 00. The wheel, its spindle perfectly balanced,
spins smoothly in an almost frictionless manner. The 🍎 standard roulette table employs up
to 10 sets of wheel checks (usually called chips). Each set is differently coloured;
each 🍎 traditionally consists of 300 chips; and there is one set for each player. The
chips usually have a single basic 🍎 value, although some casinos also sell chips of
lesser value. The colour of the chips indicates the player, not the 🍎 value of the chips.
If a player wishes to buy chips of slightly higher value, the croupier places a marker
🍎 indicating that value on top of the table’s stack of chips of the colour corresponding
to the chips purchased. Most 🍎 casinos also have high-value chips that can be wagered at
any gaming table. Unlike roulette chips, these have their numbered 🍎 values printed on
them. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.
Subscribe Now
Bets It is possible 🍎 to place the following bets in roulette: (1)
straight, or single-number (en plein), in which the chips are placed squarely 🍎 on one
number of the layout, including 0 (and also 00 on American layouts), so that the chips
do not 🍎 touch any of the lines enclosing the number; a winning single-number bet pays 35
to 1 (for each unit bet, 🍎 a winning player receives his original bet and 35 matching
units); (2) split, or 2-number (à cheval), in which the 🍎 chips are placed on any line
separating any two numbers; if either wins, payoff odds are 17 to 1; (3) 🍎 street, or
3-number (transversale pleine), in which the chips are placed on the outside line of
the layout, betting the 🍎 three numbers opposite the chips; payoff odds on any of the
three numbers are 11 to 1; (4) square, quarter, 🍎 corner, or 4-number (en carré), in
which the chips are placed on the intersection of the lines between any four 🍎 numbers;
payoff odds are 8 to 1; (5) line, or 6-number (sixaine or transversale six), in which
the chips are 🍎 placed on the intersection of the sideline and a line between two
“streets”; payoff odds are 5 to 1; (6) 🍎 column (colonne), or 12-number, in which the
chips are placed on one of the three blank spaces (some layouts have 🍎 three squares,
marked “1st,” “2nd,” and “3rd”) at the bottom of the layout, thus betting the 12
numbers above the 🍎 space; payoff odds are 2 to 1; (7) dozens (douzaine), or 12-number,
in which the chips are placed on one 🍎 of the spaces of the layout marked “12,” betting
the numbers 1–12, 13–24, or 25–36; payoff odds are 2 to 🍎 1; (8) low-number or
high-number, in which the chips are placed on the layout space marked “1–18” (manque)
or on 🍎 the space marked “19–36” (passe); payoff is even money; (9) black or red, in
which the chips are placed on 🍎 a space of the layout marked “black” (noir) or on a space
marked “red” (rouge; some layouts have a large 🍎 black or red diamond-shaped design
instead of the words); payoff is even money; (10) odd-number or even-number, in which
the 🍎 chips are placed on the space of the layout marked “odd” (impair) or on the space
marked “even” (pair); payoff 🍎 is even money. On layouts with a single zero (European
style), the 0 may be included in a 2-number bet 🍎 with any adjoining number, in a
3-number bet with 1 and 2 or with 2 and 3, and in a 🍎 4-number bet with 1, 2, and 3 at
the regular odds for these bets. With the American-style 0 and 00, 🍎 a 5-number line bet
also is possible, the player placing his chips on the corner intersection of the line
separating 🍎 the 1, 2, 3 from the 0 and 00, with payoff odds of 6 to 1.
