The word roulete — French for wheel — is a synonym for roulette, a casino game that has fascinated gamblers for centuries. Its allure lies not in its chances of winning, but in the anticipation and thrill of watching a spinning ball settle into a numbered pocket. The fact that roulette is a pure game of chance means it can never be beat, but there are ways to reduce its built-in house advantage.
The roulette wheel is a solid wooden disk slightly convex in shape, with thirty-six compartments called frets or canoes by roulette croupiers painted alternately red and black, and numbered nonconsecutively from 1 to 36. A croupier, who is also the dealer, spins the wheel while players place bets on individual numbers, groups of numbers, colors or other propositions such as high-low, odd-even, first, second and third dozen. A single green compartment, labelled 0 on European-style wheels and 00 on American ones, occupies one end of the wheel.
When a player wins a bet, the croupier places a small white chip with a roulette marker on the betting area, indicating the amount won. The dealer then packages the chips to be handed to the player and removes the marker.
Because there are so many ways to make a bet, the odds of hitting a particular number or grouping can vary greatly. The odds of a straight-up bet, for example, are 37 to 1 but the house pays only 35 to 1. This difference is where the house gains its edge in the game. In addition, a number of cheating techniques exist, some of which are legal, others less so. Frank Scoblete grew up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and spent the ’60s getting an education; the ’70s editing and publishing; and the ’80s in theatre and casino gambling. He has authored 35 books and currently lives in Long Island, New York.
