Roulette
A casino game named
after a Frenchdiminutive for little wheel. In the game, players may choose
to place bets on either a single number or a range of numbers, the colors red or black, or whether the number is odd or even. To determine the winning number and color, a croupier spins a wheel in one direction, then spins a ball in the opposite direction around a tilted circular
track running around the circumference of the wheel.
The ball eventually loses momentum
and falls on to the wheel and into one of 37 (in French/European roulette) or 38 (in American roulette) colored and numbered
pockets on the wheel.
Real Life Roulette Exploits
In 1873,
Briton Joseph Jaggers made the first famous biased roulette wheel exploit. Mr. Jaggers, with
a team of six accomplices, carefully observed all the wheels at the Monte Carlo casino and found one wheel with significant
bias. By taking advantage of this flaw they managed to win over $325,000, an astronomical sum in 1873.
In
the summer of 1891 at the Monte Carlo casino, a part-time swindler and petty crook from London named Charles Wells broke the bank at each table he played over a period of several days. Breaking
the bank meant he won all the available money in the table bank that day, and a black cloth would be placed over the table
until the bank was replenished. In song and life, he was celebrated as "The Man That Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo".
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