Roulette is a casino and gambling game named after the French word meaning “small wheel”. In the game a croupier spins a wheel in one direction, then spins a ball in the opposite direction around a tilted circular surface running around the circumference of the wheel. The ball eventually falls on to the wheel and into one of 37 (in European roulette) or 38 (in American roulette) colored and numbered pockets on the wheel.
Albert Einstein is reputed to have stated, “You cannot beat a roulette table unless you steal money from it.” And indeed he was mathematically correct. Roulette is an absolute game of chance in which the house odds are stacked from 2-5% against you. Still, the little game I’ve embedded here is awfully fun to play!
How to Play
The Roulette wheel has pockets numbered from 1 to 36 alternating between red and black. They are not in numerical order around the wheel, and there are instances of consecutive numbers being the same color. There is a green pocket numbered 0, and in American roulette there is also a second green pocket marked 00.
The house average or house edge (also called the expected value) is the amount the player loses relative to any bet made, on average. If a player bets on a single number in the American game there is a probability of 1/38 that the player wins 35 times the bet, and a 37/38 chance that the player loses their bet. The expected value is:
-1*37/38 + 35*1/38 = -0.0526 (5.26% house edge)
For European roulette, a single number wins 1/37 and loses 36/37:
-1*36/37 + 35*1/37 = -0.0270 (2.70% house edge)
Roulette Odds Table
| Bet name | Winning spaces | Payout | Odds of winning (against) |
Expected value (on a $1 bet) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 35 to 1 | 37 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| 00 | 00 | 35 to 1 | 37 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| 1 | 1 | 35 to 1 | 37 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| 2 | 2 | 35 to 1 | 37 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| … | … | … | … | … |
| 36 | 36 | 35 to 1 | 37 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| Row 00 | 0, 00 | 17 to 1 | 18 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| Row 3 | 1, 2, 3 | 11 to 1 | 11.667 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| Row 6 | 4, 5, 6 | 11 to 1 | 11.667 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| Row 9 | 7, 8, 9 | 11 to 1 | 11.667 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| … | … | … | … | … |
| Row 36 | 34, 35, 36 | 11 to 1 | 11.667 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| Corner | any number from the corner of any 4 numbers | 8 to 1 | 8.5 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| 2 Rows | any number from two rows | 5 to 1 | 5.33 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| five number bet | 0, 00, 1, 2, 3 | 6 to 1 | 6.6 to 1 | -$0.079 |
| Column 1 | 1, 4, 7, …, 34 | 2 to 1 | 2.167 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| Column 2 | 2, 5, 8, …, 35 | 2 to 1 | 2.167 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| Column 3 | 3, 6, 9, …, 36 | 2 to 1 | 2.167 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| First 12 | 1, 2, 3, …, 12 | 2 to 1 | 2.167 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| Middle 12 | 13, 14, 15, …, 24 | 2 to 1 | 2.167 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| Last 12 | 25, 26, 27, …, 36 | 2 to 1 | 2.167 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| Odd | 1, 3, 5, …, 35 | 1 to 1 | 1.111 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| Even | 2, 4, 6, …, 36 | 1 to 1 | 1.111 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| Red | 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 30, 32, 34, 36 |
1 to 1 | 1.111 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| Black | 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 29, 31, 33, 35 |
1 to 1 | 1.111 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| 1 to 18 | 1, 2, 3, …, 18 | 1 to 1 | 1.111 to 1 | -$0.053 |
| 19 to 36 | 19, 20, 21, …, 36 | 1 to 1 | 1.111 to 1 | -$0.053 |
Note also that 0 and 00 are neither odd nor even in this game.
The Story
In 2004, Ashley Revell of London sold all of his possessions, clothing included, and brought US$135,300 to the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas and put it all on “Red” at the roulette table in a double-or-nothing bet. And here is the actual video of what happened:
So, if you’re feeling lucky, have a go at it yourself!
The Game
In order to play the game, grab the chips by clicking on them, then click again to place them on the spot on the table you want to bet on. You can bet on Red, Black, Even, Odd, or any individual number. You can also put multiple chips on different spots to spread out the risk. Refer to the odds table above to determine how much the payout will be for any given spot you choose on the table.
The man in the video played it exactly right: unless you have an advantage over the house (which I’ll get to in a second) your best bet is to bet everything in one shot. The other way to go is to play one of the few games you can get a definitive lead with: either poker (playing against other people) or blackjack (if you know how to count cards). Counting cards sounds like a trick for someone with RainMan’s capabilities but in reality there are much simpler card counting systems anyone can learn.
Still, if you think that’s all fun and games, think again: most of the time a card counter turns a 52% house advantage into a 48% one. If you were betting 5-20 bucks per hand, ranging your bet based on the count, you’d still only make 10-20 bucks per hour. So in a nutshell: learn a system or be bold like our guy in th video and let it all ride!
It takes some balls to sell up everything and go to Vegas to gamble your life / life savings in one spin of the wheel…
I lost the $999 playmoney in the flash game here in 4 spins… woot!!!
Kim:)
I am rich !!!! Beer for everbody … hehe
Somehow the clip looks a bit faked to me…
Your article and the list is very informativ, thank you
Although I’ve never played it in Vegas, what little exposure I’ve had to roulette has shown me just how lucky you’d have to be in order to win at it. And I am definitely not lucky.
Oh and the youtube wouldn’t play from your embedded player because it said that the video was no longer up. Perhaps try http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGCdBsOIKYA instead? In any case, that’s a pretty crazy story! (I hadn’t heard it before.)
Hmmm. I’m not sure what you are seeing because the video is still playing here for me. But if it ends up stopping I’ll replace it with the version you found.
John
Forwarded this on to my friend John, he’s a gaming theorist and this is crack for him :)
I made $454 in four spins… and guess what? I’m walking away… with pretend money!
That was a really nice post. Thanks for taking such time to explain roulette… I would stick to betting on red or black….
Well for some reason it had said that the video was no longer on youtube when I first tried to play it. But now it seems to work so…who knows.
nice online game :)
by the end of the year, I’ll be able to leave the casinos in the green from playing all these…lol