What Colour Is Zero On A Roulette Wheel?
If you’ve ever considered playing roulette, then you may have heard that the zero pocket bears special significance in this casino game. The zero wasn’t a distinguishing feature of the game until the mid-19th century when two successful businessmen (and gamblers) made an adjustment to the popularised wheel. So, what is the significance of this number and what colour is zero on a roulette wheel? Let’s take a brief look at the game's history, how the zero came to be and what it means for you as a roulette player.
Roulette And The Zero
Throughout history, gambling has always been a favourite pastime of every step on the social ladder. Roulette is a relatively modern invention, but it certainly bears similarities to gambling games around the world that date back centuries. In Ancient Rome and Greece, for example, warring soldiers took great pleasure in a casual gamble! They did so by using shields labelled with symbols around the edge. The makeshift wheel was placed on the ground, right by a fixed arrow. The players would bet on which symbol will stop in front of the arrow, and the shield was spun to determine the outcome.
Although the roulette's origins are disputed and can’t be traced to a single source, the invention of roulette as we know it is accredited to Blaise Pascal, an 18th-century French mathematician and physicist. The roulette wheel came to be as a result of many failures in Pascal’s quest for the perpetual motion machine. He may not have succeeded in defying physics, but his entertaining invention certainly made its mark on the world.
Roulette, meaning ‘little wheel’, spread like wildfire across the European continent and eventually made its way to North American shores. At the time, roulette was played with a single zero and a double-zero pocket, which gave the house a significant edge of 5.26%. In 1842, brothers Francois and Louis Blanc sought to draw the crowds to a casino in Hamburg, Germany. They accomplished the feat by removing the double-zero pocket and distinguishing what we now know as European roulette. The removal of the extra pocket halved the house edge, so it’s no wonder that the Blanc brothers were quite successful in their venture! American casinos preferred the double-zero wheel, eventually evolving the game into American roulette.
Colour Of The Zero Pocket
The zero in roulette is green, but why? As you may know, the entire roulette wheel is divided into sections of alternating colours — red and black. Players can wager on various outcomes, like Odd or Even, Low or High and Red or Black. The roulette wheels used in Parisian casinos had red for the single zero and black for the double zero, even though the zeroes were not included in the wagers above. To avoid confusion, green (colour complementary to red) was selected for the zeroes and is the colour used to this day.
Zero And The House Edge
Let’s take the single zero as an example. The European roulette wheel contains the zero and numbers 1-36, with 18 in red and 18 in black. The highest payout, for a straight up bet on any single number, is 35:1 — but the odds against winning are 36 to 1! Thus, the expected value on a €1 bet is -€0.027, which translates into a house edge of 2.70%. Outside bets on roulette (like Red/Black and Odd/Even) have the highest probability of hitting and pay 1:1. The zero causes an offset in the odds of hitting an even-money bet, which is why the chances are just under 50%. In other words, the zero directly represents the roulette house edge. The house edge, or advantage, is the average amount a player is expected to lose relative to any bet made.
Since there is an additional pocket on the American wheel, the double zero, the odds of swing in favour of the house even further. If you wager on a single number, the probability of winning the 35:1 payout is 1/38, while the chances of losing the bet are 37/38. In turn, the expected value on a €1 wager is -€0.0526, resulting in a house edge of 5.26%. This is precisely why the European wheel is widely preferred to the American, double-zero wheel. Online casino players can often choose between the two wheels, and even though the odds are always in favour of the casino on every spin — the European wheel is an obvious winner.