When a player places a bet on a roulette table they give the dealer money and ask for “colour”. They get coloured roulette chips that have a value equal to their buy-in.
A croupier spins the wheel, and when it stops the white ball will land in one of the numbered slots. Bets are placed on the table until the croupier calls “no more bets”.
Origins
While many fanciful theories exist about the origins of roulette, the truth is that we simply don’t know how it was created. Some people believe that it was invented by 17th-century French mathematician Blaise Pascal while trying to create a perpetual motion machine, while others think the game originated in China and was brought to France by Dominican monks. In reality, however, a number of games with similar structures to the modern version of roulette had been around for a century or more before the emergence of the game as we know it today.
The first true roulette wheel, closely resembling the one we use today, appeared in France in the early 1700s. It is also possible that it developed from two older games, the English game of Hoca and the Italian game Portique.
Variations
Roulette is an extremely popular casino game with many variants. Some of them have different rules while others are based on the same rules but offer different payouts. Some of the most popular variations include European Roulette, French Roulette, and Lightning Roulette.
Roulette is also a concept in differential geometry, where it describes a curve that rolls, without slipping, along another given curve. These curves must be differentiable and the generator point must lie on both of them. The resulting curve can be described by one of the following involute: cycloids, epitrochoids, hypotrochoids, and trochoid.
In the context of gambling, variation is important because players are not only concerned with odds and expected value but they also seek a pleasant experience. Variation allows them to enjoy the game more and maximize their winning potential.
