Roullete, the experimental arts space founded by trombonist Jim Staley in a TriBeCa loft 45 years ago, evokes a certain sense of timelessness when you walk in. But despite its enduring presence, the loft’s spacious main room now feels smaller than it did in the past, and the place itself is shifting. In June, Staley will step down as Roulette’s artistic director. He’ll leave the role to a new generation, but he’ll still be on hand to guide the organization as it moves from its former home to Greene Street in downtown Brooklyn.
Roulette, named after the French word for “little wheel,” dates back to the 17th century, when physicist Blaise Pascal developed a spinning cylinder as part of his quest to create a perpetual motion machine. It was probably based on the ancient Chinese game hoca, which had 37 animal figurines as bets and used a rotating disk to settle the outcome.
Today’s roulette wheel is a solid wooden disc slightly convex in shape. Its rim is punctured by metal partitions, called frets or separators by croupiers. Thirty-six of these compartments, painted alternately red and black, are numbered nonconsecutively from 1 to 36, while the 37th is painted green and carries the symbol 0. On European wheels there is also a second green compartment marked Logo.
There are several different bets that can be placed on the table, including inside and outside bets. Inside bets are placed on numbers or groups of numbers, while outside bets are placed on various sections of the wheel. The payouts for each of these bets differ, and the odds of winning are lower for outside bets.
Aside from the aforementioned zero and double-zero, there are two other interesting symmetries in the European roulette wheel. The high and low red and black numbers are grouped together on one side of the wheel, while on the other are the high and low green numbers. There are no green numbers in the first dozen (13-24, Premiere douzaine or P12), or in the second (12-24, Moyenne douzaine or M12).
Regardless of the bet type, there is always a house edge. But there are many systems that claim to eliminate this edge through careful study of the wheel and the game’s mechanics, or through a mixture of strategy and luck. Some of these strategies are quite complex and have been widely discredited, but a simple search on Google will return countless—possibly millions—of results for systems that are supposed to beat the maths. The truth is that it’s impossible to beat the mathematics, but a good system can reduce the odds of losing by giving you more confidence in your bets. And that’s why it pays to practice before you start betting real money.