The Green Pockets on the Roulette Wheel

Roulette is an incredibly popular gambling game. It was one of the iconic games that Europe's elite played in the casinos of Monaco during the 18th Century. Because of its association with the glamour and decadence of Monte Carlo, roulette is also frequently referred to as the "king of casino games." An American roulette wheel has thirty-eight numbered and colored pockets. Two of those pockets, numbered zero and double zero, are colored green; and the rest are numbered from one to thirty-six, and colored an alternating red and black. A European roulette wheel, on the other hand, has thirty-seven numbered and colored pockets. It only has one green pocket, numbered zero.

There are a lot of different ways to bet in roulette, and these types of bets can be separated into inside bets and outside bets. Inside bets are bets placed on individual numbers or sets of numbers in a particular position. Outside bets, on the other hand, are bets placed on whether the ball will land on an odd or even number, a on whether or not it will land in a red or black pocket, and on whether or not the ball will land within a range of numbers. Unless specified though, none of these types of bets include the zero or zeros on the roulette wheel.

In American roulette, if a person makes a Straight Up bet -a bet on a single number on the roulette wheel- their chances of winning are thirty-seven to one. Despite that, the payout that they can receive will only be thirty-five dollars to every dollar that they have wagered. An American roulette wheel has thirty-eight pockets, but because the two green pockets are not counted when calculating for the payout.

The fact that the two green pockets in American roulette and the single green pocket in European roulette are not counted when calculating the payout means that the house has an edge in relation to how much the casino might lose when a player wins. The house edge is the advantage that the casino has over their players. It is often believed that if a person bets on the green pocket or pockets, they gain the house edge, but this is untrue. Betting on the green pockets on a roulette wheel does not give a person any greater or smaller a chance of winning than if they had bet on any other pockets on the wheel.