House slots, 0 or 00, appear at the top of the columns. The cloth covering on a roulette table is called the “layout.” There are two betting areas: the inside area contains three columns of individual numbers (1-36) the outside area has betting boxes for each of the three columns, red or black, odd or even, and two groups of numbers (1-18 and 19-36). The game itself derives from the early English wheel games Roly-Poly, Reiner, Ace of Hearts, and E-O, together with the Italian board games Hoca and Biribi. The 17th-century origin of the roulette wheel is attributed to Blaise Pascal, whose “attempts to create a perpetual motion machine the roulette machine, a by-product of these experiments” (MIT). Original 19th-century American Roulette layout for the game that has “mesmerized generations of gamblers, arguably coming to embody the glamour, excitement and occasional misery of the casino better than any other game” (Glyn Thomas).

Original gilt-lettered American roulette table layout, framed (piece measures 31 by 53 inches).

“THE DEVIL’S GAME”: ANTIQUE AMERICAN ROULETTE LAYOUTĮLLIS, William, manufacturer.

Double zero roulette