The Workings of the Roulette Wheel
The roulette wheel is the most important part of the roulette game, so it’s important to understand how it works.
What is a Roulette Wheel?
The game of roulette is easy to identify in a land-based casino, because it is the only game with a shiny wheel and a ball which spins on that wheel. There are two primary types of roulette wheels. The two wheels are very similar. Each has many black and red numbers printed on it. A European roulette wheel has a single green segment printed with the number 0, while an American roulette wheel has two green segments, printed with the numbers 0 and 00. The other numbers featured on the roulette wheel are the digits between one and thirty-six.
The casino attendant at the roulette table is called a croupier. The croupier’s job is to spin the wheel, drop the ball on the wheel, make sure all bets are placed at the correct time, and then pay off any winnings and clear off all losing chips. Croupiers are taught a specific method for both spinning the roulette wheel and dropping the ball onto the wheel. The wheel is spun in one direction, while the ball is pitched gently in the opposite direction. This makes it almost impossible to tell which pocket the ball will land in.
Beating the Roulette Wheel
Many movies and television shows have been made about beating the roulette wheel. Books have been written on the subject, and many people claim to have cracked the system. There are two major groups of people who claim to have a winning system for roulette. The first group is those who use various betting systems. These systems generally do not work for two reasons. The first is that players cannot raise bets to an unlimited level. Since most betting systems rely on raising bets to cover losses, players will often reach table limits or exceed their own budget. The second reason that these systems often fail is that many are based on the gambler’s fallacy. Many gamblers believe, for example, that if the wheel has landed on black ten times in a row, then it will land on red within a spin or two. This is simply incorrect. The next spin is independent of the previous spins, and there is still a slightly less than 50% chance of the next spin landing on black.
The other system often used in roulette relies upon faulty roulette wheels. By documenting hundreds, if not thousands, of spins, players are sometimes able to discover that there is a slight bias towards one area of the wheel. In the past, players utilized the bias to win a lot of money, but the casinos have replaced the older wheels with a newer wheel which is less likely to be biased, and casinos regularly check their wheels for bias. Players should be extremely wary of any book, website, or person who claims to be able to beat the roulette wheel. The only way to win at roulette is simple luck.