The roulette wheel

The outside surface of the wheel has got the form of a bowl fixed on the axis. Its diameter is about 90 c, the weight is till 40 kilogramm.

The wheel is usually made of valuable finewood. The inside circumference is divided into "pockets", holes where the ball falls after spinning.

The wheel is a mechanism balanced accurately that must ensure random results.

There are 2 types of wheel - the wheel for American roulette and the wheel for European roulette. The main differences between them are:

The are 38 numbers on the American roulette (1-36, 0 and 00), and only 37 numbers (0,1-36) on the European wheel.

The wheel of American roulette

It is divided into 38 identical slots numbered from 0, 00, 1 till 36 inclusive.

The numbers on the standard plaing wheel are marked neither chaoticaly nor regularly. On the contrary they are arranged in such a way to reach a certain balance detween the big (18-36) and small (1-8), black and red, even and odd numbers:

Black and red numbers stand in turn.

Two even numbers usually follow two odd ones.

All the red numbers are opposite to the black ones.

Each even number is placed opposite to an odd number following.

The majority or numbers make a pair between which one more number stands. The sum of such a pair composes 37 or 39.

Zero or double zero are of the green colour. All the rest are either red or black. Numbers are marked on the inside circumference of the wheel.


The wheel of European roulette

The wheel in European and French roulette have 37 slots from 0 till 36.

Like in American roulette the numbers are placed neither chaotically nor regularly:

Black and red numbers stand in turn.

In the sector placed on the right from zero (from 32-10) there are 9 black small numbers (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17) and 9 red small numbers (19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 30, 32, 34, 36).

In the sector placed on the left from zero (25-5) there can be found 9 black big numbers (20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 29, 31, 33, 35) and 9 red small numbers (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 18).

Numbers are marked on the outside circumference of the wheel.

The sector "Viosins du zero" includes 12 successive numbers: 22, 18, 29, 7, 28, 12, 35, 3, 26, 0, 32, 15, 19, 4, 21, 2, 25.

The sector "Tier du Cylindre" includes: 27, 13, 36, 11, 30, 8, 23, 10, 5, 24, 16, 33.

The sectors "Orphans" and "Orphelins".

These two sectors include the rest 8 numbers: 17, 34, 6, 1, 20, 14, 31, 9.

In European roulette numbers are marked on the outside circumference of the wheel, in American roulette - on the inside circumference.

The wheel used in French roulette is the same as in the European version of the game.