Roulette Games

Roulette is a popular casino game involving a single dealer (officially called a croupier, but more commonly referred to as the dealer), one rotating wheel and a small, metal ball. The roulette table is rectangular shaped, with the dealer taking up one long side, the wheel taking up one short side, and players wrapping around the other two sides. In roulette, players make bets, guessing where the small metal ball will land within the round roulette wheel. In American roulette, the wheel contains two green squares, one with zero, the other with double zero, then the numbers 1-38, in alternating black and red.

Players make their bets by placing the desired number of chips on a betting square, choosing either by color, number or a range of numbers. Once the bets are placed, the dealer spins the wheel, then, after stopping further bet placement with a wave of his hand above the betting table, the dealer drops the small metal ball into the spinning wheel, spinning it in the opposite direction that the wheel is spinning. The ball jumps and hops in an effort to settle in to one of the depressions on the wheel. As the wheel stops, the ball settles into the pocket in front of a single number, and this becomes the winning number. The dealer places a small marker (a dolly) on the winning numbers. He then removes all losing bets, pushing the lost chips into a hole in the table. Finally, the dealer pays out on the winning bets, removes the marker, and betting begins anew. A lighted board above the wheel tracks the last 10 or so spins, helping betters to calculate their bets with knowledge of what has recently transpired.