The King of Casino Games - French Roulette
During the late 1700s in France, Roulette became a very popular game. In fact by the early 1800s one French philosopher, Jean le Rond d'Alembert, had all ready formulated a theory, or strategy, for winning at the game.
Roulette’s popularity spread quickly and it was soon a game played in the United States as well as many other countries. Later in the 1800s gambling faced prohibition in many European countries, and Roulette was soon forced into “exile” in the lovely city of Monte Carlo. Today, the town is known for its luxurious casinos and gambling houses, and the sophistication of the area has attached itself to Roulette where it has earned the nickname ‘the King of Casino Games’.
Many people think of famous or chic characters when they think of Roulette. James Bond is famous for his visits to casinos where he always wagers on “seventeen. “Rick’s Café” in the classic film “Casablanca” is the location of secret gambling rooms where refugees try to win the money for a passage out of the country (and where some get the generous “assistance” of Rick himself when they play Roulette). The version or Roulette that these people are playing is usually the French variation of the game.
Quite different from American and European variations, French Roulette has the standard “single zero” wheel with thirty six numbers and one green zero slot. The layout table, usually in red felt, is different in appearance from the other versions, but actually offers all of the same bets. The table is also written in French, which may account for some players getting confused, but all of the traditional bets exist on the French version.
The French Roulette layout table has an area for red or black bets, even and odd bets (named “pair” and “impair”), high and low numbers (where “manqué” means one through eighteen and “passé” means nineteen through thirty-six). The standard “dozens” bets are available and are indicated by “P-12” or the first dozen, “M-12” for the middle dozen, and “D-12” for the final dozen. The French Roulette panel has a space to wager on the single zero, and it has the usual thirty-six “inside” bet spaces to correspond with every number on the wheel.
French Roulette allows for all of the other standard bets to apply, which means the “inside” bets such as straights, splits, streets, corners and lines. The usual “outside” bets are also played, such as those above and also the standard “columns” bet.
Most payouts follow usual schemes, with outside bets varying from even payouts of one to one and increasing up to two to one for the riskier wagers. The inside bets will still be very rewarding, with a range of five to one up to thirty five to one depending upon the bet.
Additionally, French Roulette has “call” bets, which are generally spoken to the dealer or “croupier” by the players. These include:
- “Voisins du zero” – the neighbors of zero, which lie between twenty two and twenty five on the wheel.
- Tiers – this is a wager on the number which lie on the opposite side of the Roulette wheel between twenty seven and thirty three
- Orphelins – these are the “orphans” excluded from the wagers above, and are in two separate areas of the wheel. They include seventeen, thirty four and six on one side, and one, twenty, fourteen, thirty one and nine on the other.
- “and the neighbors” – this is a special wager for a single number on the wheel, plus the two neighbors on either side of it. This can also apply to the other call bet series. For example a player could call the Orphelins and the neighbors.
French Roulette also has some ways that a player might redeem a portion of a lost bet. The “en prison” and “la partage” rules. En prison allows a player the choice of taking back half their even money bet, or leaving it down a second time when the spin hits a zero. The “la partage” rule gives the player back half their even money bet on a zero.