The name “Roulette” literally translates into “the little wheel”, with the wheel itself the center of the game. The original Roulette wheel has been attributed to Blaise Pascal of France, built when he was attempting to create a perpetual motion machine. The wheel itself is credited to a number of games including Roly-Poly, Reiner, Ace of Hearts and the French board game Roulette. These games originated in England and France and have been in play for centuries. Roulette with a wheel, the ancestor of the modern day game, was first played at the Palais Royal (Royal Palace) in France in 1796.
The wheel is usually constructed of wood and sets on top of a long table that is covered in felt. The wheel is spun by the croupier and spins in one direction while a small white ball is sent along the inside track of the wheel in the opposite direction. Once the ball loses forward momentum, it drops into one of the 37 or 38, depending on the type played, and lands on a single number. The numbers, excepting the single or double zero, which are both green, are colored either black or red and correspond with the numbers printed on the felt of the table. This printed area is referred to as the table layout and is the part of the table where gamblers place their bets prior to the croupier calling “no more bets”. In the European version of Roulette, the wheel is in the center of the table with the layout spread to both sides of the wheel.
The Roulette wheel itself is constructed of two main parts, the wheelhead and a static bowl the wheelhead rotates around. The bowl of the wheel is usually made of hardwood with plastic pieces dividing the numbered slots and marking the numbers around the wheelhead. The rest of the bowl assembly includes the travel pieces for the ball, the ball track, the lower ball track apron with ball deflectors and a spindle for the wheelhead to spin on. The center of the wheelhead is called the cone and is essential in directing the ball into the numbered pockets. The decorative top piece of the wheelhead is called the turret and it is used to conceal the height adjustment mechanism for lowering and raising the wheelhead inside the bowl. All casino Roulette wheels are checks to extremely tight tolerances prior to being allowed on the gaming floor for play. The current construction of the wheelhead is such the number the ball will land in is almost impossible to predict. Modern manufacturers removed a small lip that used to run just under the ball track, allowing players to somewhat accurately predict the number where the ball would land.