Boule is quite similar to roulette. A stationary rounded table has eighteen pockets, two for each number from one to nine. A ball is rolled into the table, which is essentially a cone in shape. The ball bounces around and falls into one of the numbers – the winning number. Players betting on the number are paid off at 7 to 1, although true chances are 8 to 1, for a house advantage of 11.11%. Players can also bet on red and black, odds or evens, high or low, for an even payoff. They lose on even bets when a five appears, making the true chances of winning only 4 of 9, for the same house advantage of 11.11%. The game was very popular in France prior to the introduction of slot machines in the late 1980s. Slot rooms and boule rooms in France do not have admission charges. The game was also played at the Crystal Casino in Winnipeg, Manitoba, through the 1990s. Until recently, it was the only game allowed in Switzerland, where the payout was only 6 to 1 for a single-number play, for a house edge of 22.22%.

Big Wheel (Wheel of Fortune or Big Six)

A big vertical wheel of fortune is a common sight at carnivals and charity casino events. The wheel of fortune is also popular in U.S.  casinos but less prevalent in casinos of other jurisdictions. The mechanical wheel is spun by a dealer who also supervises betting activity on a table in front of the wheel. The wheel’s simplicity and exposure to a gambling crowd makes it susceptible to cheating, so it would be advisable not to play the game except in a regulated atmosphere. Casinos must be vigilant to ensure that the wheel is not compromised by players.
The wheel is about five feet across from top to bottom. It has fifty-four equally spaced sections that are separated by nails that are near the rim of the wheel. A strap of leather is mounted above the wheel, and it hits the nails as the wheel spins around. The friction of contact slows the wheel, and it stops with the leather strap settling on one of the fifty-four spaces – the winning space.
The spaces are designated by denominations of dollar bills. Twenty-three sections are marked with a $1 bill, 15 with $2 bills, 8 with $5 bills, 4 with $10 bills, and two with $20 bills. Two others are marked with a joker and a flag marking. The player bets on the category of bill he or she expects the wheel to hit. He or she receives an even money payout for a successful bet on the $1 bill, although the chances of success are only 23 of 54. This gives the house a 14.8 percent edge. A bet on $5 pays 2 to 1 for a casino advantage of 16.6%; other bets give the house an edge of from 14.8 percent to 22.2%. A bet on the joker or the flag is paid at 45 to 1. These odds advantages for the house make the big wheel a bad bet for the player. The simple nature of the activity and the symbolism of the wheel of fortune have sustained a modicum of popularity of the wheel among amateur players.

Espherodromo

Legal restrictions on gambling are not often followed to the letter. In addition to those who would confront the law with blatant illegality, there are those who seek to find nonconfrontational ways around the law. The roulette form of gambling is quite popular, so where roulette is in itself illegal, there are those who will seek to find other games like roulette that might survive legal challenges. Two of those games are espherodromo and golden ten. Espherodromo appeared in the city of Bogota, Colombia, where casinos were always on the edge of the law. Therefore entrepreneurs came up with a game that certainly did not look like roulette, but in format was a roulette-style game. (See description of the game in entry for Colombia).

Golden Ten

The golden ten game was offered to players in nonauthorized settings; however, its operators were quite successful in avoiding prosecution on the basis that their game was not a gambling game. The golden ten wheel game was instead advanced as a skill game. The game gained an especially viable hold in the Netherlands in the 1980s after the government tried a crackdown on patently illegal casino gaming. Operators came up with this new game, although some suggest it was invented by Germans. The game is called golden ten because it uses a wheel with numbers in the center around a circle; one of the numbers is marked zero, and the other is marked with a big golden X. There are twenty-four numbers on the wheel, so if it were a random-ordered game, the house would have an advantage of about 8 percent, as payoffs on single numbers are 23 to 1, whereas the expectation should require a payoff of 25 to 1. But those running the wheel claimed that the numbers, although falling randomly, could be predicted by the players. Indeed, the game was also called observation roulette.
The circular bowl for the game is stationary. A ball rolled into the smooth metal bowl makes slow, descending spirals downward until it hits the center area, where it bounces into one of the numbered areas or the area marked zero or X. The metal bowl contains two concentric circles on its sides, about one-third and two-thirds of the way down the sides. The circles are simply markings on the bowl that do not affect the roll of the ball. The player makes his or her bet after the ball has passed the first circle but before it crosses the lower circle. The player can watch the ball come out of the dealer’s hand and watch it cross the first circle line. By observing the rolls over and over, the player is supposed to be in a good position to “predict” where the ball will likely land. With successful predictions, the player becomes a skillful winner, not a gambler at all. Gambling demands that chance be a material part of the play on at least a meaningful part of the play.  The casinos with golden tens provided lists of rules requiring players to make many observations before they tried playing. They wanted the players to be skillful. When legal authorities claimed it was a gambling game, the defenders of the game asked the government to prove that players were not using skill. One judge suggested that prosecuting officials would have to show that the players did not do better, or could not do better, than achieving the 92 percent expected payout. As the golden ten games closed down whenever police or government officials came into the premises, it was difficult to achieve such proofs. For over a dozen years the court officials allowed the game to be played and not harassed by the law. In the mid-1990s, judicial policies allowed a more effective enforcement of the law, and most of the games closed down permanently.
Was golden ten a skill game? When I interviewed one operator in Rotterdam on 20 July 1986, I asked whether indeed a skillful player could “beat the casino”. I was assured that one could. Truly, one could use skill and predict where the ball would fall. So I asked what would happen if a player came in and did predict over and over where the ball would fall. The operator paused a bit before replying slowly, “Well, we would have to throw him out.” (An option always open to illegal casinos). In truth they never had to do so, because no player could pick a winner by any other force than the force of luck.

Hoca and E-O

Carl Sifakis suggests that today’s roulette wheel may have had its origins in wheels called E-O and hoca that appeared in the early 1600s in central Europe. E-O stands for even-odd. A circular table had 40 gouges or pockets carved into it around the edge. Twenty pockets were marked as even and 20 as odd. Two (1 odd and 1 even) had X’s marked on them as well.  The game paid even money to a winner. If a player bet on even, and an even number received the ball that was rolled around the table, the player won. If the ball fell into an even pocket marked with an X, it was a tie. If the ball fell in any of the 20 odd pockets, the player lost. This gave the house a 2.5% advantage. The game of hoca also had the table with 40 pockets, but 3 were marked with zeros, and the even money payouts gave the house an advantage of 7.5 percent. These games ceased operation with the appearance of the French roulette wheel.
The French wheel was purportedly developed by French mathematician Blaise Pascal, who lived from 1623 to 1662. In his mathematics work he expounded at length on probability theory. His wheel was useful for explaining his theories. Legend has it that Pascal conceived of the wheel during a retreat at a religious monastery. Others perfected the wheel that is used in French roulette (also called European roulette) today. Given the early origins of the game, it can be suggested that roulette is the oldest casino game still in active play.

French (European) and American Roulette

There are two basic styles of roulette games – French (European) roulette and American roulette. There are other variations of games with different sets of numbers, including the big wheel, boule, golden ten, and espherodromo. which are discussed later in this entry.
Both the French and American wheels have numbers from one to thirty-six on parts of the inner circle, each separated by frets. The French wheel also includes a zero, and the American wheel has a zero and a double zero. The croupiers rotate the wheel, and as it spins in one direction, he or she rolls the ball (plastic or ivory) in the opposite direction in a circular groove at the top of the wheel. Soon the ball slows down and falls toward the numbers in the inner circle. As it does, it hits small metal bumps on the surface of the wheel that cause the ball to bounce in ways making its path random as it finds its number or the zero or double zero. This number is the winner.
The player makes bets on a layout showing the thirty-six numbers in three columns and twelve rows. At the top of the columns the zero (and double zero) are placed. On the sides of the columns are places for bets on odd or even numbers, red or black, and low or high numbers.
The French wheel has a different distribution of numbers around the wheel than does the American wheel. On both, red and black numbers alternate, but not even-odd or high and low numbers. The logic of the number arrangement seeks to enhance making the number selection random.
The French game is worked by several dealers who are called croupiers. The main croupier controls the wheel. Others help by making bets for players by placing their chips on the layout. The players all use casino value chips, so it is important that the croupiers keep a close track on just who is making each bet, as all the chips are the same. Another croupier places a marker on the winning number and separates the winning bet chips from other chips that he rakes in. All bets are paid out with wins that allow the casino to have a 2.70% edge. The bets on the individual numbers are paid at 35 to 1 even though the true odds are 36 to 1. Even payouts are given for odd-even, red-black, and high-low, and the chance of each bet winning is 18 in 37. Bets may also be made on columns, rows, adjacent numbers on the layout, four numbers on the layout, and special combinations of numbers that appear near other numbers. A voisins bet (meaning “neighbors”) is placed on the four numbers that surround the last winning number. A les voisins du zero bet covers the numbers surrounding the zero. A finals bet can be placed on all numbers ending in the same digit (for example, 6, 16, 26, and 36), and les tiers is a bet covering one third of the wheel. Les orphelins is a bet covering numbers not in les tiers or les voisins du zero.
As the croupiers place bets for the players and deliver payouts for players, and all the chips look the same, the playing process is slow. Each game involving the spinning of the wheel takes two minutes or more if there are several players. This contrasts with the American wheel game where a play usually occurs more than once a minute, and even as many as 100 times an hour.
The American game offers worse odds for the player, as the wheel has two zeros along with the thirty-six numbers. The odds against the player hitting a single number are therefore 37 to 1, but the payoff is the same as with the French game, 35 to 1. This gives the house an edge of 5.26%. Red-black, even-odd, high-low bets are paid even money, but the player’s chances of success are 18 in 38 for the same 5.26% house advantage. The player could do worse yet. He or she could bet on a series of five numbers at the end of the table – the 0, 00, 1, 2, and 3, with a payoff possibility of 6 to 1, whereas the true chances are 33 to 1, for a house advantage of 7.89%. In some casinos with American roulette (e.g., Atlantic City casinos), a bettor on even payout bets (odd-even, red-black, high-low) loses only half of his or her bet if the zero or double zero comes up. This rule, called en prison (because half of the bet remains on the table unless it is withdrawn), reduces the house edge to 2.70% on this bet.
In American roulette, only one dealer is needed to spin the wheel and to handle all wagers. The players purchase (with cash or casino value chips) individual colored chips that are distinguished from those of all the other players. The players place their own chips. All the dealer must do is make sure there are no bets placed after the ball descends into the winning number’s space.
The English variation of roulette offers the player the best odds. A French wheel is used with its single zero, but players have their individualized American chips. The house edge of 2.7% is in contrast to French roulette because of another difference. In French roulette the player is obligated to tip the dealer with each win. If the player wins thirty-five chips, he or she “must” pay one to the croupiers as a tip. Must is a strong word, but if the tip is not paid, the croupier just might lose track of that player’s future bets if they are winners (after all, the chips are all the same for all the players). In England this is not a major problem – first, because the players have individualized chips, and second, because tipping of dealers is prohibited in the casinos. Hence in effect, the true edge in England is 2.7%, whereas, in reality, in France it is closer to the American edge of 5.26%.
Because of the odds disadvantage, the game of American roulette is not popular. Indeed, roulette action in Las Vegas casinos is close to zero, certainly less than 1 percent of the action. Yet the game of roulette has qualities that should be attractive worldwide. Actually, roulette is the premier table game of most European casinos. Roulette is a simple game that is easily understood even by the most novice gambler.  Also with but a few exceptions (the en prison rule and the five-series bet in American roulette), all bets on the roulette table have the same expected payout – 94.74% for American roulette and 97.3 percent for French roulette – whether the player bets on one number, two, a column, or odds or even, red or black, or high or low numbers. It is a democratic game; all the players, amateur and professional, get the same chances. Unlike blackjack or craps, there is no “stupid” bet – that is, once one decides to start playing.
Roulette is also a game that permits players to try a wide variety of systems. Many casinos encourage systems by keeping boards that display the last twenty numbers that have come up on the wheel. Also some casinos publish books showing the actual numbers that came up on individual wheels over weeks, months, and even years. Whatever system a player may conjure up, the player can pretest it by applying it to real numbers and sequences of numbers that have come up on actual wheels.