We know that by 1896 roulette was already the thing in Paris thanks to a French writer – Jaques Lablee, who described how the game was played at the Palais Royale in his book La Roulette, ou le Jour.
The rules, set up and gameplay of Lablee’s roulette are still the same today, with only slight variations between the American, European, and French versions of roulette: a large game wheel with coloured and numbered pockets, a small metal ball, a betting layout where players can place their bets on numbers or groups of numbers, and a croupier to run the game.
Roulette was developed on the basis of previous games with rudimentary rules like the Italian Biribi or the English Even/Odd, and was largely made possible by the contributions of French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal.
Pascal started by accidentally inventing the roulette wheel while doing a little side project of his trying to create a Perpetuum Mobile (a perpetual motion machine) and change the destiny of humankind by granting it an indefinite energy supply.
Perhaps even more important for the game’s development, however, was the groundbreaking work on gambling math he did in correspondence with another French mathematician – Pierre de Fermat.
Their work on the mathematical implications of the rules of games of chance laid the foundations on which Christiaan Huygens, this time a Dutch guy, wrote the first book on probability theory – today a major tool in economics and risk assessment science, even though originally it was just “the science of gambling”.
“Probability theory and the discoveries following it changed the way we regard uncertainty, risk, decision-making, and an individual’s and society’s ability to influence the course of future events,” John Ross, a modern author writes.
How to Play Roulette: Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners
https://rouletteguru.in , which by the way means “Little Wheel” in French, is a convenient casino game for beginners because its rules are simple and quick for understanding, and the variety of bet options with high probability of winning up to almost 50% makes it easier to develop good bankroll management strategies.
The objective of the game is to guess in which numbered pocket the ball will land after the croupier spins the wheel in one direction, and the ball in the other.
The roulette wheel has 36 red or black pockets for the numbers between 1 and 36, plus one or more green “Zero” pockets, sometimes called “the bank pockets”.
In roulette, just like in most casino games, the players bet against the casino, and not against each other. The betting layout has an inside area displaying all the numbers, and an outside area with additional bet options.
Up to 8 players can join a roulette table at brick-and-mortar casinos and each player will get gaming chips of one particular color, different from the colors of the other players. Online roulette games usually have no limit on the number of players, except for online games with a live dealer, where the maximum number of players depends mostly on the human croupier’s abilities to handle the game.
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This is a step-by-step guide on how to play roulette on the internet:
- Select an online casino with online roulette games from SevenJackpots’ list of reviewed sites;
- Sign up and make a deposit (this can be done in 5 minutes with Paytm or virtually any other secure method);
- Choose a roulette game from the online casino’s game lobby;
- Place your bets by tapping the mobile screen;
- Play and enjoy!
Inside and Outside Bets: What You Need to Know
As their name suggests, inside bets are placed within the internal area of the betting layout where the numbers are, and outside bets are done on the external sections of the layout where players can bet on larger groups of numbers like red or black, or first, second, or third dozen.
The science of probability theory has determined the size of payout for each type of bet based on the actual chance for a bet type to win. The higher the odds for winning, the lower the payout.
For example, the odds of a bet on black numbers to win in a European roulette game of 37 pockets are 18:37 which is equal to a probability of 48.60%, and the payout is 1:1. On the other hand, a straight up bet on a single number has odds of 1:37 and a payout of 1:35.
If you’ve noticed, there is a small difference between the actual odds and the given payouts – this is the statistical margin provided for the casino and is usually called “the house edge”.
Outside bets:
The outside bets are often preferred by casino beginners due to their high odds for winning, even though the payouts are correspondingly smaller:
| Bet | Odds | Payout |
| Red/Black | 48.60% | 1:1 |
| Odd/Even | 48.60% | 1:1 |
| Columns | 32.40% | 2:1 |
| Dozens | 32.40% | 2:1 |
Inside bets:
These are the riskier bets that bring high rewards against low odds which makes them favorite to many seasoned players and fans of the game.
Besides bets on single numbers, called “Straight up” bets, bets can be placed on any two adjoining numbers – “Split”, or on any row of three numbers – “Street”.
Inside bets on larger number groups are also possible, and include “Corner” – a bet on a square of 4 numbers, “Six Line”or “Double Street” – on two adjoining rows. There is also the “Basket” bet on the first 4 numbers from “0” to “3”.
| Bet | Odds | Payout |
| Straight Up | 2.70% | 35:1 |
| Split | 5.41% | 17:1 |
| Street | 8.11% | 11:1 |
| Corner | 10.50% | 8:1 |
| Six Line | 15.80% | 5:1 |
| Basket | 10.50% | 8:1 |
Roulette Variations: American, European, and French
The Parisian roulette version Jaques Lablee wrote about in his book has two bank pockets – “0” and “00”, or “Zero” and “Double Zero”, and is ironically called “American”.
The single-zero “European” variant first appeared in Germany in 1843, but was introduced by two French guys – François and Louis Blanc. The omission of the double zero pocket lowered the house edge from 5.26% to 2.70% and provided a nice competitive advantage to casinos that offered this version.
What is now called “French” roulette has one bank pocket again, but also an even lower house edge that can reach 1.45% due to two additional rules and an extra third category of bet options, which is named “Call Bets” because they are usually called out by the players at the table.
The two unique “French” roulette rules are called “La Partage”, where half of each bet on a 1:1 payout scheme is returned to the player instead of being lost when the ball lands on zero; and “En Prison”, where such bets stay on for the next round if “0” wins, and are returned to the player in full if the second round is successful.
Call bets include “Orphelins”, “Voisins de Zeró”, “Jeu Zeró” and “Le Tiers du Cylindre” and allow players to bet on irregular number combinations such as on the numbers close to the zero pocket, or directly opposite it.
Online Roulette: Differences and Similarities Compared to Land-Based Casinos.
The most obvious difference between online and land-based casinos is that web platforms are open 24/7 and can be played from the comfort of one’s home or while commuting to work in the morning, for example.
Playing at legitimate physical casinos, on the other hand, often requires traveling to jurisdictions like Goa, Sikkim or Macau that allow and license them.
Another major difference is that while offline casinos are limited to the classic versions of casino games, online casinos are run by digital technology which has allowed numerous innovations and lots of creativity with the game rules and even mixing together elements from different games and gaming genres.
In the world of online roulette, digitalization has brought variation of the game like the hugely popular Lightning Roulette where additional multipliers can boost a winning up to 500 times the original bet, or Instant Roulette which has 12 wheels so there is always one wheel spinning.
Online roulette games can be very simple and light and allow for fast gaming sessions in the breaks between regular daily tasks, or can be very immersive with a live dealer and augmented reality elements or even virtual reality that give players the feeling of being on an actual casino floor breathing a proper casino atmosphere.
