The Roulette Wheel
The standard roulette wheel weighs about a hundred pounds, is three feet around with slanted walls and is generally made of wood with thirty seven or thirty eight pockets or compartments, numbered from 0 to 36 or 0 and 00 to 36 and painted in alternating colors of red or black that the ball can land in. The zero pocket in a roulette wheel and the zero zero pocket are painted green. Generally red pockets are even numbers and black pockets are odd.
The 37 pocket wheels are designed in the European style which has a significantly lower house edge of 2.7% while the 38 pocket American roulette wheel holds a zero and a double zero pocket has a house edge that is almost double the European edge at 5.26%
The placement of the numbers on the wheel is designed to optimize the balance between high and low and even and odd numbers, giving each a fair shot of being spun at all times.
