The word Roullete is a French name meaning “little wheel.” Roulette, one of the most popular casino games, involves spinning a small ball around a revolving wheel and betting on which numbered compartment it will enter when it comes to rest. The game is based entirely on luck and requires no skill to play. Despite the lack of any strategy, the game is wildly popular at online and land casinos worldwide.
The wheel in a roulette game consists of a solid wooden disk slightly convex in shape with a rim surrounding it and metal separators, or frets, which divide the surface into thirty-six numbered compartments alternately painted red and black. A 37th compartment, on European-style wheels, carries the number zero. There are also two green compartments marked 0 and 00 on American-style wheels.
A dealer spins the wheel in one direction while players place their chips on the table. When the wheel stops, the dealer rolls a ball in the opposite direction around a tilted circular track that runs along the outer edge of the wheel. The ball then lands in one of the compartments on the roulette wheel, and winners are paid according to their odds. Bets can be placed on a single number, various groupings of numbers, whether the number is odd or even, and if the numbers are high (19-36) or low (1-18).
After the ball lands in a compartment, the dealer announces “no more bets!” This prevents players from placing additional chips after they have won and allows the croupier to keep track of all winning bets. It also prevents cheating and other unfair advantages.
In addition to preventing bets after the ball has landed, the croupier also has the power to reduce the house edge by applying the “La Partage” rule to all even-money bets. This means that the dealer will instantly split all even-money bets in half, keeping half for the casino and returning the other half to the player. This drastically lowers the house edge, making the game more fair for players. In fact, the house edge can be reduced by up to 2.70% with this rule.