What Is a Roulette in English?

A roulette is a casino game named after the French word meaning “little wheel”. In the game, players may choose to place bets on either a single number or a range of numbers, the colors red or black, or whether the number is odd or even.

To determine the winning number and color, a croupier spins a wheel in one direction, then spins a ball in the opposite direction around a tilted track running around the circumference of the wheel. The ball eventually loses momentum and falls onto the wheel and into one of 37 (in French/European roulette) or 38 (in American roulette) colored and numbered pockets on the wheel.

The first form of roulette was devised in 18th century France. A century earlier, Blaise Pascal introduced a primitive form of roulette in the 17th century in his search for a perpetual motion machine. The game has been played in its present form since as early as 1796 in Paris.

An early description of the roulette game in its current form is found in a French novel La Roulette, ou le Jour by Jaques Lablee, which describes a roulette wheel in the Palais Royal in Paris in 1796. As with all casino games, roulette has evolved over time with new variations being developed all the time.

The American game was developed in the gambling dens across the new territories where makeshift games had been set up, whereas the French game evolved with style and leisure in Monte Carlo. During World War II, American soldiers introduced the game to Nevada casinos where it quickly became popular.

Today, roulette is one of the most popular casino games in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. The object of roulette is to pick the winning number that will appear on the ball when the wheel stops spinning. You can bet on just about any number or group of numbers you like.

There are all sorts of different bets you can make; some with better odds than others. The most common bets are betting on red or black (a near 50/50 proposition), odd or even (again, close to 50/50), or picking a specific number (your odds are 35 to 1).