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Roulette – Game of Chance that Fascinates

Roulette is a game of chance that fascinated gamblers from the first time it appeared. The game is named after a french word, meaning ‘small wheel’. Blaise Pascal, a french scientist is the inventor of the roulette device who is said it was fascinated by perpetual motion devices. The first version of roulette was seen in the 17th century.

The game became very popular in Paris and in 1842, wishing to obtain a better house advantage, Francois and Louis Blanc invented the roulette wheel with a single ‘0’.

In that period of time France declared gambling illegal, so the game was introduced in Germany, where from the start attracted people. The game was brought back to France for Charles III, the Prince of Monaco and so appeared the resort Monte Carlo, a sumptuous and famous place, known all over the world.

During the California Gold Rush, roulette became famous in the US where it was played in the double ’00’ version.

Roulette can be played in a few versions and the most popular are European and American Roulette. The game is actually an easy casino game, and its odds reside only on luck. A croupier throws a ball in the wheel in the opposite direction to which the wheel is spinning. Players bet that the ball will land on the wheels pockets colored and numbered from 1 to 37 in European Roulette and from 1 to 38 in American Roulette.

Roulette holds a variety of bets available for players. These bets are split in two types, ‘inside bets’ and ‘outside bets’. Inside bets refer to the pocket number in which the player bets that the ball will land on. These are the Straight Bet, Split Bet, Street Bet, Square Bet and the Line Bet.

Outside bets refer to various positional groupings of pockets, pocket colors, or whether it is odd or even in which the ball will land on. Based on each of the bets probability, these bets have different payout odds that are usually posted for each roulette game. The outside bets are the Column Bet, The Dozen Bet and the Even Money Bet.

Inside bets have higher odds and outside bets have lower odds. The bet with the higher odds (35 to 1) Straight Bet – a player bets that the ball will land on a particular bet. Even Money is the bet with the lowest odds (1 to 1) – a player makes a bet that the ball will land in any of the 18 numbers.

European Roulette

The wheel in European Roulette is numbered from 1 to 36 plus one ‘0’, so you have 37 numbered pockets. This is the roulette version that offers to its players better odds, having a house advantage of only 2.7%.

American Roulette

This version of the game has the same 1 trough 36 numbers plus the single ‘0’ and double ’00’ pockets. The house advantage for this version is 5.26%. As roulette is just a simple game of chance, you won’t be able to find a real strategy or system that can help you win. The most rampant and also relevant advice you will find about best roulette playing style is to always avoid the American Roulette. You will be advised to always look for European Roulette games, because they offer the best rules and odds for the player against the house.

French Roulette

The french wheel consists of numbered slots ranging from 0 to 36 and has three types of bets. Inside bets, outside bets and call bets. Inside bets include Single Number Bets, Split or Double Bets, Three on a Row or Street Bets, Box of Four or Square Bets and Box of Six or Line Bets. Outside bets are formed of Column Bets, Dozen Bets and Even Money Bets. Call bets include Les Voisins du Zero Bets, Tiers du Cylindre Bets, Les Orphelins Bets and the series of Finales Bets. A special aspect of this roulette variation is the La Partage rule, which is a rule that offers you the option of losing only half your Even Money Bet amount if the ball lands on the ‘0’ in an Even Money Bet.

Tips to Improve Lottery Odds

Tips to Improve Lottery Odds

Unlike poker and blackjack the lottery is a pure game of chance and no special skills are needed to play the lottery. This does not mean that lottery players can’t use some logic and reason to increase their chances of winning that huge Powerball or Mega Millions jackpot. There are many websites that claim to have the ‘secret’ to winning the lottery but most of these are based on new age mysticism or outright superstitions. Other lottery websites may claim to have discovered various algorithms to pick winning numbers. The hard cold facts are; there are no ‘lucky’ numbers and lottery numbers are usually picked by some sort of random number generator. There are some strategies that can increase your chances of winning the lottery and here are seven ways to improve your chances of winning.

Avoid playing numbers that have recently been drawn. It is highly unlikely that these numbers will be drawn again. Statistics show that most big lottery winners had their numbers picked by a random number generator at a lottery retailer.

There is no such thing as a so called ‘lucky’ number. While playing your birthday dates may be fun it is highly unlikely your birthday date will be drawn. In addition birthday numbers are limited to six or eight digits and most lotteries require the player to pick more digits than a birthday date can provide.

Since lottery draws are totally random using number sequences is a poor strategy. Sequences such as 2-4-6-8-10 should be avoided. Since lottery draws are random it is best to mix odd and even numbers.

Play lottery games with better odds. While the payout will not be as big lottery games that require the player to pick 3 or 4 numbers offer players significantly better odds. Most lotteries publish the odds for the various games they offer.

Avoid using patterns on the lottery playslip. While some patterns may look pretty cool on the lottery slip they will not in any way improve your chances of winning.

Many savvy lottery players check previously drawn numbers and will pick what are known as ‘neighbor numbers’. One lottery expert says that players should check the 10 most recent drawings for numbers that have been drawn frequently.

Watch for repeating numbers. Put simply these are numbers that have been drawn more frequently than others. Thanks to computer technology it is easy to check past winning numbers.

One expert says that three and four digit lottery games run in trends. He points out that a number that has not been drawn during the past ten games is a ‘due number.’ He also suggests checking for frequent numbers and to use a combination of due numbers and frequently occurring numbers.

In the past people have spent a considerable amount of time researching various ways to improve the odds for players but the fact remains; the lottery is still a game of pure chance.