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Virgin
Casino: Spin the wheel of fortune with Virgin
Casino's new 3 Wheel Roulette - 27th August 2008
London
-- Virgin Casino today announces the launch of
3 Wheel Roulette - an exciting new version of
the most popular casino game in Europe.
Offering
players triple the excitement and three times
the chance to win on every spin, 3 Wheel Roulette
is sure to be a hit with avid Roulette players.
Not
only is the action tripled in 3 Wheel Roulette,
the award potential is also supercharged thanks
to the game's new Colour Up Bonus'. Based on the
combination of the final numbers appearing on
the three wheels, a single Colour Up Bonus' bet
makes players eligible for a number of different
awards, including 100x and even 1,000x pays.
And
the action doesn't stop there. Advanced graphics
allow players to enjoy ultra-realistic ball movement
based upon motion capture of actual roulette wheels.
Turbo Play' mode meanwhile, enables players to
accelerate the pace and excitement of the game,
while faster play kicks in when players re-bet
and spin with a single click - the perfect play
options for those who enjoy life in the fast lane.
As
with all Virgin Casino games, players can also
earn V*Points - Virgin Games' loyalty points -
every time they play. Offering players the chance
to redeem their points for further Virgin rewards,
including Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles or
cold, hard cash, V*Points can be transferred across
Virgin Games portfolio of products, including
Virgin Poker and Virgin Bingo.
Premium
releases including ELVIS - A Little More Action
, Cleopatra II and Da Vinci Diamonds have already
been added to Virgin Casino's portfolio of games
in 2008. Further big IGT names will be added to
Virgin Games in the coming months, ensuring a
constant stream of new and exciting games to keep
players' adrenalin going.
Virgin
Casino launched under the Virgin Games brand in
June 2004. The site was refreshed in June 2006,
providing players with a greater choice of games
and additional means of earning bonus points and
rewards.
3
Wheel Roulette is available to play now on www.virgincasino.com
*
3 Wheel Roulette and Colour Up Bonus are trademarks
or registered trademarks of IGT in the U.S. and/or
other countries, and is used with permission.
U.S. and international patents pending.
About
Virgin Games
Virgin
Games (http://www.virgingames.com),
a subsidiary of Virgin.com Ltd, launched in June
2004 and has quickly established itself as one
of the leading gaming websites in the UK. Virgin
Games comprises three distinct entertainment offerings,
giving consumers the chance to play their favourite
online games the Virgin way:
Virgin
Casino, part of the Wagerworks network, provides
a taste of Vegas online, with classic casino offerings
like blackjack and roulette, as well as popular
feature slots like Elvis, Cleopatra and Vegas,
Baby!
Virgin
Poker, part of the Boss Media network, offers
a huge array of games and content for beginners
through to experienced pros - as well as the most
generous loyalty scheme in the industry. The successful
Virgin Poker Festivals, which take place in casinos
around the UK throughout the year, now allow gamers
to experience the fun of Virgin Poker offline
too Virgin Bingo, part of the St Minver network,
offers cash prizes worth thousands of pounds in
the progressive jackpots, as well as regular promotions
and an unrivalled loyalty scheme.
Profile
Virgin
Casino
Roulette
Roulette
is a casino and gambling game named after the
French word meaning "small wheel". In
the game, players may choose to place bets on
either a number, a range of numbers, the color
red or black, or whether the number is odd or
even. To determine the winning number and color,
a croupier spins a wheel in one direction, then
spins a ball in the opposite direction around
a tilted circular track running around the circumference
of the wheel. The ball eventually loses momentum
and falls on to the wheel and into one of 37 (in
European roulette) or 38 (in American roulette)
colored and numbered pockets on the wheel.
History
The
first form of roulette was devised in 18th century
France. The roulette wheel is believed to be a
fusion of the English wheel games Roly-Poly, Ace
of Hearts, and E.O., the Italian board games of
Hoca and Biribi, and "Roulette" from
an already existing French board game of that
name.
The
game has been played in its current form since
as early as 1796 in Paris. The earliest description
of the roulette game in its current form is found
in a French novel "La Roulette, ou le Jour"
by Jaques Lablee, which describes a roulette wheel
in the Palais Royal in Paris in 1796. The description
included the house pockets, "There are exactly
two slots reserved for the bank, whence it derives
its sole mathematical advantage." It then
goes on to describe the layout with, "...two
betting spaces containing the bank's two numbers,
zero and double zero." The book was published
in 1801. An even earlier reference to a game of
this name was published in regulations for New
France (Canada) in 1758, which banned the games
of "dice, hoca, faro, and roulette."
In
1843, in the German spa casino town of Homburg,
fellow Frenchmen François and Louis Blanc
introduced the single "0" style roulette
wheel in order to compete against other casinos
offering the traditional wheel with single and
double zero house pockets.
In
some forms of early American roulette wheels -
as shown in the 1886 Hoyle gambling books, there
were numbers 1 through 28, plus a single zero,
a double zero, and an American Eagle. According
to Hoyle "the single 0, the double 0, and
eagle are never bars; but when the ball falls
into either of them, the banker sweeps every thing
upon the table, except what may happen to be bet
on either one of them, when he pays twenty-seven
for one, which is the amount paid for all sums
bet upon any single figure."
In
the 1800s, roulette spread all over Europe and
the U.S.A., becoming one of the most famous and
most popular casino games. When the German government
abolished gambling in the 1860s, the Blanc family
moved to the last legal remaining casino operation
in Europe at Monte Carlo, where they established
a gambling mecca for the elite of Europe. It was
here that the single zero roulette wheel became
the premier game, and over the years was exported
around the world, except in the United States
where the double zero wheel had remained dominant.
Some call roulette the "King of Casino Games",
probably because it was associated with the glamour
of the casinos in Monte Carlo.
A
legend tells François Blanc supposedly
bargained with the devil to obtain the secrets
of roulette. The legend is based on the fact that
the sum of all the numbers on the roulette wheel
(from 1 to 36) is 666, which is the "Number
of the Beast."
In
the United States, the French double zero wheel
made its way up the Mississippi from New Orleans,
and then westward. It was here, because of rampant
cheating by both operators and gamblers, the wheel
eventually was placed on top of the table to prevent
devices being hidden in the table or wheel, and
the betting layout was simplified. This eventually
evolved into the American style roulette game
as different from the traditional French game.
The American game developed in the gambling dens
across the new territories where makeshift games
had been set up, whereas, the French game evolved
with style and leisure in Monte Carlo. However,
it is the American style layout with its simplified
betting and fast cash action, using either a single
or double zero wheel, that now dominates in most
casinos around the world.
During
the first part of the 20th century, the only casino
towns of note were Monte Carlo with the traditional
single zero French wheel, and Las Vegas with the
American double zero wheel. In the 1970s, casinos
began to flourish around the world. By 2008 there
were several hundred casinos world wide offering
roulette games. The double zero wheel is found
in the U.S.A., South America, and the Caribbean,
while the single zero wheel is predominant elsewhere.
Betting
strategies and tactics
Albert
Einstein is reputed to have stated, "You
cannot beat a roulette table unless you steal
money from it."
Nevertheless,
the numerous even-money bets in roulette have
inspired many players over the years to attempt
to beat the game by using one or more variations
of a Martingale betting strategy, wherein the
gamer doubles the bet after every loss, so that
the first win would recover all previous losses,
plus win a profit equal to the original bet. As
the referenced article on Martingales points out,
this betting strategy is fundamentally flawed
in practice and the near-universal long-term consequence
is a large financial loss. Another strategy is
the Fibonacci system, where bets are calculated
according to the Fibonacci sequence. Regardless
of the specific progression, no such strategy
can statistically overcome the casino's advantage.
While
not a strategy to win money, Los Angeles Times
editor Andrés Martinez described an enjoyable
roulette betting method in his book on Las Vegas
entitled "24/7". He called it the "dopey
experiment". The idea is to divide one's
roulette session bankroll into 35 units. This
unit is bet on a particular number for 35 consecutive
spins. Thus, if the number hits in that time,
the gambler wins back the original bankroll and
can play subsequent spins with house money. However,
there is only a (1 - (37 / 38)35) * 100% = 60.68%
probability of winning within 35 spins (assuming
a double zero wheel with 38 pockets).
There
is a common misconception that the green numbers
are "house numbers" and that by betting
on them one "gains the house edge."
In fact, it is true that the house's advantage
comes from the existence of the green numbers
(a game without them would be statistically fair);
however, they are no more or less likely to come
up than any other number.
Various
attempts have been made by engineers to overcome
the house edge through predicting the mechanical
performance of the wheel, most notably by Joseph
Jagger at Monte Carlo in 1873. These schemes work
by determining that the ball is more likely to
fall at certain numbers. Claude Shannon, a mathematician
and computer scientist best known for his contributions
to information theory, built arguably the first
wearable computer to do so in 1961.
To
try to prevent exploits like this, the casinos
monitor the performance of their wheels, and rebalance
and realign them regularly to try to keep the
result of the spins as random as possible.
More
recently Thomas Bass, in his book The Eudaemonic
Pie 1991 (published as The Newtonian Casino in
Britain), has claimed to be able to predict wheel
performance in real time. The book describes the
exploits of a group of computer hackers, who called
themselves the Eudaemons, who in the late 1970s
used computers in their shoes to win at roulette
by predicting where the ball would fall.
At
least in the 1930s, some professional gamblers
were able to consistently gain an edge in roulette
by seeking out rigged wheels (not difficult to
find at that time) and betting opposite the largest
bets.
In
the early 1990s, Gonzalo Garcia-Pelayo used a
computer to model the tendencies of the roulette
wheels at the Casino de Madrid in Madrid, Spain.
Betting the most likely numbers, along with members
of his family, he was able to win over one million
dollars over a period of several years. A court
ruled in his favor when the legality of his strategy
was challenged by the casino.
In
2004 it was reported that a group of two Serbs
and one Hungarian in London had used a laser scanner
hidden inside a mobile phone linked to a computer
to predict the sector of the wheel where the ball
was most likely to drop. They were arrested, but
released without charge as there was no proof
they had technically interfered with casino equipment.
Betting
only on red
One
conceivable strategy would be to bet on the ball
landing in a red space for a certain number of
spins, for example, 38.
There
are 18 red spaces on a roulette table with 38
total spaces. Dividing 18 by 38 yields a probability
of landing on red of 47.37%. This probability
can be used in a binomial distribution and made
into an approximate standard normal distribution.
Doing
so indicates that, if one were to spin the wheel
38 times, there is a 99% probability that the
ball would land on red at least 10 times. There
is an 83% probability that in 38 spins, the ball
will land on red at least 15 times. Out of 38
spins, there's a 50% chance that 18 will be red.
However,
the break-even point is 19 spins, since the bet
on red is 1:1, and the probability of 19 red spins
in 38 is only 37%. This indicates the difficulty
of winning by only betting on red.
The
results occur because, as indicated by the 18
divided by 38 equals 47.37% figure, the ball will
land on red less than half the time. This percentage
applied in the binomial and standard normal distributions
creates the vast divide in probability from 18
red spins to 19 red spins out of 38 spins. It
is very unlikely for anyone to spin much more
than 18 red spins out of 38 spins.
Betting multiple times
This
type of bet is a combination of the red bet and
the martingale system. The difference is that
this bet also includes the odd. This strategy
starts off with a bet of 1 on each the red and
the odd (or you can do the black and even). Each
bet is treated separately. When one bet loses,
it is doubled. When one bet wins, it gets set
back to 1. The reason that this technique keeps
the player in the game so long is that there is
almost a 25% chance of winning both the red and
the odd and there is almost a 50% chance of breaking
even (win one bet and lose the other). Of course,
in order for this method to last, the player would
need an unlimited source of money, and a casino
with another one to boot. In reality, this method
backfires when the player can't bet any longer
and loses. The loss that this causes is possibly
hundreds of times bigger than a loss made when
starting. Also, in the long run, because the house
still has an edge, the player will lose money
just like with all other "unbeatable"
casino games.
Labouchere
System
The
Labouchere System is progression betting strategy
like the Martingale but does not require the gambler
to risk his stake as quickly with dramatic double
ups. The Labouchere System involves using a series
of numbers in a line to determine the bet amount,
following a win or a loss. Typically, the player
adds the numbers at the front and end of the line
to determine the size of the next bet. When he
wins, he crosses out the outside numbers and continues
working on the smaller line. If he loses, then
he adds his previous bet to the end of the line
and continues to work on the longer line. This
is a much more flexible progression betting system
and there is much room for the player to design
his initial line to his own playing preference.
Using
the dozen bet
There
are two versions to this system, single dozen
bets and double dozen bets. In the single dozen
bet version, the player uses a progressively incrementing
stake list starting from the casino table minimum,
to the table maximum. The aim here is to use a
single dozen bet to win before the stake list
ends. Many techniques are employed such as: betting
on the same dozen to appear after two consecutive
appearances, betting on the dozen that has appeared
most in the last 15, 9, or 5 spins, betting on
the dozen that, after a long absence of 7 or more
spins, appears for the first time. The double
dozen bet version uses two dozen bets and half
the stake list size of the single dozen bet version.
1st and 3rd column strategy
One
bet of 2 pieces on the 1st column and one bet
of 2 pieces on the 3rd column covers most of the
red numbers on the table. One bet of 2 pieces
on the black will provide insurance for occurrence
of black. This betting system covers nearly all
numbers except for the 4 red numbers in the middle
column and the zero (and double zero in American
Roulette). If the result is a red number in either
the 1st or 3rd column, the player only breaks
even. If the result is red in the middle column
the player loses 6 pieces. If the result is black
and in the middle column, the player loses 2 pieces.
If the result is a black in the 1st or 3rd column,
the player only wins 4 pieces.
Mechanical
Strategies
There
are a number of roulette strategies which take
a more mechanical approach to breaking the casino.
The most famous is the biased wheel attack. In
the biased wheel attack, the player clocks the
wheel to find statistical deviations indicating
some flaw to the wheel. Given that the wheel is
man made it is quite impossible for the roulette
wheel to be perfect. The biased wheel attack,
seeks to find imperfect wheels and exploit the
fact that some wheels will return numbers more
often than 1 in 35, which means there is potential
to have an edge over the casino. Clocking the
wheel involves taking spin results in great numbers
to identify any opportunities.
BIASED
WHEELS: SECTION BETTING
In
1982, several casinos in England began to lose
large sums of money at their roulette tables to
teams of gamblers from the USA. Upon investigation
by the police, it was discovered they were using
a legal system of biased wheel-section betting.
As a result of this, the English roulette wheel
manufacturer John Huxley designed a roulette wheel
to counter-act the problem.
The
new wheel was called "low profile" because
the pockets had been drastically reduced in depth,
and various other design modifications caused
the ball to descend in a gradual approach to the
pocket area. In 1986, when a professional gambling
team headed by Billy Walters won $3.8 million
using the system on an old wheel at the Golden
Nugget in Atlantic City, every casino in the world
took notice, and within one year had switched
to the new "low profile" wheel. Recent
additional modifications to the roulette wheel
by Cammegh of England has made it almost impossible
to use a mechanical winning system.
Famous bets
* In 1873, the Englishman Joseph Jaggers made
the first famous roulette biased wheel attack.
Mr. Jaggers with a team of six clerks, clocked
all the wheels at the Monte Carlo casino and found
one wheel to show significant bias. In their attack
exploiting this flaw they won over $325,000, an
astronomical sum in 1873.
* In the summer of 1891 at the Monte Carlo casino,
a part-time swindler and petty crook from London
named Charles Wells, broke the bank at each table
he played over a period of several days. Breaking
the bank meant he won all the available money
in the table bank that day, and a black cloth
would be placed over the table until the bank
was replenished. In song and life he was celebrated
as "The Man That Broke the Bank at Monte
Carlo." He later admitted that it was all
luck, and he eventually ended up in jail for many
years because of his fraudulent schemes.
* In 2004, Ashley Revell of London sold all of
his possessions, clothing included, and brought
US$135,300 to the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas and
put it all on "Red" at the roulette
table in a double-or-nothing bet. The ball landed
on "Red 7" and Revell walked away with
his net-worth doubled to $270,600.
* In the 1942 film Casablanca, Rick's Café
Americain has a trick roulette wheel. The croupier
can cause it to land on 22 at will. Rick (Humphrey
Bogart) urges a Czech refugee with whose case
he becomes sympathetic to put his last three chips
on 22 and motions to the croupier to let him win.
After the man's number dramatically comes up,
Rick tells him to let it all ride on 22 and lets
him win again. Although the details are not mentioned
in the film (the croupier only notes that they
are "a couple of thousand" down), it
appears that Rick has given the man 3885 ((3*36*36)-3)
francs.
* In the music video for "Palace & Main"
by Kent, guitarist Harri Mänty goes to Las
Vegas and bets the entire video budget on black.
He wins, and the profits were donated to charity.
*
In the third part of the 1998 film Run, Lola,
Run, Lola uses all her money to buy a 100-mark
chip. (She is actually just short of 100 marks,
but gains the sympathy of a casino employee who
gives her the chip for what money she has.) She
bets her single chip on 20 and wins. She lets
her winnings ride on 20 and wins again, making
her total winnings 129,600 marks (29,600 more
than her smuggler boyfriend owed his boss, Ronnie).
The odds of two consecutive wins on the same number
on a European roulette wheel are exactly 1368-to-1
against.
* In the South Park episode "Red Man's Greed",
the town, facing destruction at the hands of Native
Americans, bets $10,000 to raise money to save
the town. They win, but let it ride, and lose
all of it.
*
Near the beginning of the 1973 film The Sting,
Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) takes his share
of the money conned from a numbers runner and
loses nearly all of it on a single bet against
a rigged roulette wheel. (Credit:
Wikipedia).
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