The Basics of Roulette

Roulette is one of the oldest and most classic casino games. Players place bets by laying colored chips on a betting mat. The dealer indicates how much your chips will be worth and parcels them out to you. Inside bets are made on individual numbers or small groups of numbers, while outside bets are on red-black, odd-even, and first, second or third dozens.

Origin

Although a number of fanciful stories exist regarding the origin of roulette, one of the most accepted is that it was invented by 17th century French mathematician Blaise Pascal. He was apparently trying to create a perpetual motion machine at the time, and the game was an accidental result of his experiment. It is also thought that the game evolved from older games such as Roly Poly and Even Odd, and that it may have been influenced by ancient Chinese board games brought to Europe by Dominican monks. Earlier games similar to Roulette included Cavagnole, Biribi and Biribissi, which used the same principle of guessing what numbered ticket would be pulled from a bag.

Bets

There are a number of different bets available on roulette, and they all differ in their winning odds. Inside bets, for example, have lower winning odds but offer higher payouts. Outside bets, on the other hand, have much higher winning odds but offer lower payouts. The Street bet, for instance, is one of the most risky wagers and pays 11 to 1 if it is correct. The other type of inside bet is the Split, which involves betting on two numbers and paying 17 to 1.

Other types of inside bets include the Dozens and Columns.