Roulette

Roulette is a casino game in Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout: New Vegas.

Fallout and Fallout 2
Roulette can be played via dialogue in Fallout and Fallout 2.

Fallout: New Vegas
In Fallout: New Vegas, players may choose to place bets on either a single number or a range of numbers, the colors red or black, or whether the number is odd or even. Playing 10 spins of roulette gives you the Little Wheel achievement/trophy.

Rules
Roulette is a simple game of chance. The croupier spins the roulette wheel in one direction, then spins a ball in the opposite direction along a grooved track running the circumference of the wheel. When the ball loses momentum and falls into one of the 38 'baskets', the winning number and color is announced, and bets are paid out as appropriate.

The 'house edge' or the 'expected value' is the amount a player is expected to lose, relative to the amount they bet. For American Roulette, the standard played in the Mojave Desert (numbers 0 to 36, plus 00), the player can expect to lose 5.26% of the chips they bet for neutral Luck.

Note that this 5.26% house edge compares very unfavorably to Blackjack, which can be as little as .3% depending on the casino.

Betting
Betting on roulette is somewhat more complex than other casino games found throughout the wastes, and is the only real element of strategy involved in the game, since the payout and odds of winning depend on what the player is betting. Bets are divided into two broad categories, based on their likelihood and payout. As with all casino bets, the player is limited to a 200 chip maximum bet. Unlike other casino games, which only have one outcome to bet upon, this maximum bet encompasses every bet the player makes on a single spin; for example, one can either make a single bet of 200 on red, or two bets of 100 on red and even, and so on as long as the total value of the bets does not exceed 200.

Inside bets usually include one number, or a narrow group of numbers, and are statistically more unlikely to come up a winner. However, inside bets have better payouts to make up for their riskier odds.

Outside bets are 'safer', as they usually include a large section of numbers on the roulette wheel. However, the payout for a outside bet is significantly lower, usually only 1-to-1 or 2-to-1.

A bet with a roughly 50-50 chance and a decent payout would consist of putting chips on a color (black or red) and then putting more chips down on the even or odd (but not both) chances.

The bets and corresponding numbers, odds and payouts are shown below. The letters correspond to an example position shown on the betting table diagram to the right.

Note that the following table assumes that all outcomes are equally likely; with high or low Luck this assumption doesn't hold, making the table completely useless.

Like other gambling games, if Luck influences the result you will get a message "you feel lucky" when you win. It appears that Luck can only influence which of two adjacent numbers the ball will fall into. Thus, Luck can't help a single-number bet unless the ball were going to fall nearby anyway, but Luck can always affect Red / Black or Even / Odd bets.



Anti-cheating measure
If loading directly after a losing spin, the player sees the following message: "The croupier is taking a minute to checking the wheel for bias, as an anti-cheating measure". Roulette play is then suspended for one minute.

Locations
Roulette can be played at the following locations:
 * Ultra-Luxe
 * The Tops
 * Atomic Wrangler Casino
 * Gomorrah
 * Vikki and Vance Casino
 * Sierra Madre Casino (Dead Money)

Bugs

 * Not so much a bug as a design flaw. You must increase your bet first ('E' on the player) then place ('W') to bet more than one. If you place, then increase, you will have only placed a bet of 1.
 * (?) The game will crash if you win or lose more than 1000 chips in one sitting and then attempt to do anything that brings up a menu screen(talk to an npc with a dialogue tree, save/load, access your pipboy).