Roulette is a casino game in which players place bets on a single number or various groupings of numbers. The color of the number, whether it is red or black, and whether it is high (19-36) or low (1-18) are all factors in determining the odds of winning.

The game has an underlying simplicity that has made it popular with gamblers throughout history. There are many variations on the game, but they all feature a spinning wheel with one or two zeros and a table for placing bets. The game is played by a dealer who spins the wheel and rolls a ball in the opposite direction around a tilted circular track. When the ball comes to rest in a compartment with a number, the player wins.

Fanciful stories abound as to the origin of the game. It is believed that it was invented by the 17th-century French mathematician Blaise Pascal, by a Dominican monk, or by the Chinese. However, the game was definitely influenced by older games like hoca and portique and achieved its modern form in the late 1790s.

Regardless of the game’s popularity, the house edge remains substantial at 2.70%, even with the “La Partage” rule (which splits all even-money bets in half, keeping half for the house and returning the other to the player). The only way to minimize this risk is to study the bet types above before laying your chips. A good place to start is with the James Bond strategy, which combines multiple bets to give you the best odds of winning.