Roulette has offered glamour, mystery and excitement to casino-goers since its earliest days. While the game is simple enough to learn, it has a surprising depth of strategy for serious players. A simple Google search will return thousands of systems (some easy, some complicated, some well described, others not so much) for playing and winning the game. But can any of these systems beat the maths?

A fanciful legend credits the 17th century French mathematician Blaise Pascal with inventing the game of roulette. In fact, the game was derived from older games hoca and portique and evolved into its modern form in the early 18th century.

The roulette wheel consists of a flat, solid wooden disk slightly convex in shape with a rim around which are metal partitions or frets that separate it into 37 or 38 compartments (known as pockets by croupiers). These compartments are painted alternately red and black, and are numbered nonconsecutively from 1 to 36. The rim also includes a green pocket that carries the sign 0 and two red ones that carries the sign 1.

In roulette, you place bets on numbers or groupings of numbers. Typically, you can wager either on a single number, various groups of numbers (red or black, odd or even), whether the number is high or low, and on the color of the pockets in which your bet rests. You can also make a bet that the ball will land in one of a series of predetermined areas, called sectors.

Each roulette table carries a placard describing the minimum and maximum bets allowed. It is a good idea to set your budget before you play, and start with “outside” bets (groups of numbers rather than individual digits). Once the dealer announces that “no more bets,” the losers’ chips are removed from the layout and the winners are paid.

When you win a bet, the dealer will hand you coloured roulette chips equal to your winning amount. These chips are different from regular casino chips, as they have a special value that indicates the payout when cashed in. The dealer will ask what denomination you want to designate for each chip. Traditionally, roulette balls have been made of ivory but today they are often made from plastic or resin and even Teflon. The differences in size, weight and material have a noticeable impact on how the ball bounces and spins around the wheel track before it settles.