Whether you play in Betfair Casino or you’re a traditionalist who has to go to the land casino in order to really relax, there are very few casino fans who haven’t given roulette a chance. Spinning the wheel, watching the results come in and then just collecting the winnings. Is there any other game that better exemplifies what makes the casino such a thrill? But how well do you know the wheel?
First things first, let’s have a look at the height adjuster – this is often overlooked due to the flashy turret that goes on top, but it serves a very important function of making sure that the wheel is sitting at the right height. Next, you have the ball itself, which used to be made of ivory back in the olden days, but nowadays it’s made out of a synthetic substance that keeps it light and uniform so that it will land as randomly as possible. But to help with the randomness, we also have a studded ball track which has ridges designed to knock a spinning ball off it and onto the wheel – which helps to keep everything randomised. Then we get to the main attraction itself – the wheel, and here’s where things get a little interesting.
There’s always been 36 numbers on the wheel, with zero tiles along the way to give the house an edge, though the exact number of zero tiles varies – because of the devil. By pure co-incidence, the numbers on the wheel add up to 666, the ‘Number of the beast’, and in the 18th and 19th centuries was enough to spark a ban across Europe. This ban drove two brothers from Germany to flee to Monaco with their wheel, a specialist model that only featured one zero, and has since become the hallmark of roulette in the principality.
For more fun facts about the roulette wheel, just check out this exploded view that goes over some of the key features that help to give the roulette wheel it’s uniquely random way to play a game.
