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.



Playing to Win
Despite the enormous number of choices and the idea of inside and outside bets, Roulette is ultimately a game of simple chance and there are ultimately no right or wrong moves. That is because the payouts almost exactly mirror the relative odds of getting a specific outcome. The "almost" is because of the influence of the green 0 and green 00. If you bet on any other square, the presence of those two outcomes gives the casino an edge. For example, even if you were to put 50 chips on "black" and 50 chips on "red", you still have two positions that are neither black nor red. Even if you were to try to cover that option by putting chips on both greens, there is still the vast probability that a red or black comes up, wasting your insurance bet.

In fact, the only real decision is how quickly you want to lose your money, since otherwise in the long-run you will always end up losing about 5% of your chips each time you play. If you do outside bets, you will lose money slower. If you inside bets, you will lose money faster.

The main deviation from this is the influence of positive Luck (6, preferably 7 or higher). Because of the way Luck influences the game (by nudging the ball one bevel over if possible), you may be able to notice the outcomes switching in your favor a bit more commonly with outside bets: Luck is more beneficial the more opportunities it can flip the outcome in your favor. For example, betting only on 00 will still be a very unlikely outcome, since Luck can only help if the ball would fall into one of the bevels directly neighboring the 00 bevel. Betting on black, however, means that every red bevel (because the bevels alternate in color) is a candidate for Luck influence. Though, it is not perfectly clear whether the game internally compensates for this by reducing the chance Luck helps outside bets.

Regardless, the total net result - whatever your betting strategy - is that each point of positive Luck slowly shifts the casino edge away in your favor. It is unknown, however, at what Luck Roulette's edge begins to favor the player. It is likely, though hard to prove, that with deep pockets (to wait out dry spells), a Luck of 8 is enough to make Roulette a profitable endeavor.

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)

Behind the scenes

 * James Garcia created the 3D model for the roulette table.