Roulette, or rouleau (in French), is a game played with a small ball on a table marked off with numbers from 1 to 36, one or two zeros, and various other sections affording players different betting opportunities. At its center is a revolving dish-like device called a roulette wheel, with pockets for the ball to land in.
Depending on how lucky you are, the payout can be quite high or very low. The basic rules of the game are simple. Each player purchases a set of chips at a predetermined denomination from the dealer, or croupier. The croupier then throws the ball into a spinning wheel. When the ball comes to rest in a pocket that matches a bet, the player wins.
There are many myths about the history of the game, including that it was invented by 17th-century French mathematician Blaise Pascal. In reality, however, it was derived from the older games of hoca and portique and evolved to its present form in the casinos and gambling dens of Europe. When it arrived in the United States, a number of modifications were made to prevent cheating by both operators and gamblers. These included placing the wheel on top of the table to prevent devices from being hidden inside, and simplifying the betting layout and wheel structure.
Each roulette table has a map of the number slots on its surface. There are a number of bets that can be placed on groups of numbers rather than individual digits, which are known as “outside bets.” These bets offer lower odds and higher payouts when they win.
Outside bets are also called “street” bets because they involve laying your chips on a row of three consecutive numbers on the map. They are cheaper bets with a greater chance of winning than single-number bets, but their payout is less than the top prize for a straight-up bet.
The Dozens Bet, or douzaine in French, is a wager that the winning number will be in one of the first dozen numbers on the table map (1-18), the second dozen (19-36), or both. This bet pays 2-1. The Odd or Even Bet, or impair et pair in French, is a bet that the winning number will be either odd or even. The payout for this bet is 1-1.