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 by speaking to Roulette dealers in the following locations. There is a Roulette table in the Stockmen's Association Headquarters in NCR Downtown.

Locations

 * Fallout
 * Gizmo's Casino, Junktown
 * Maltese Falcon, Hub Downtown
 * Fallout 2
 * Ascorti's Ace and City Hall, Redding Downtown
 * Becky's, Den West Side
 * Desperado - Virgin Street, New Reno
 * Shark Club - Second Street, New Reno

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 are 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 Wasteland (numbers 0 to 36, plus 00), the player can expect to lose 5.26% of the chips they bet.

Betting
Betting on Roulette is more complex than other casino games found throughout the wastes, adding an element of strategy alongside luck. The payout and odds of winning depend on what the player bets. 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. The high payouts of inside bets are useful for overcoming the maximum payout from each casino. Using some other gambling games (Blackjack is easy to win and control with 5 Luck or above) to earn close to the maximum payout, one can leverage the high payout of an inside bet (up to 7000) to significantly exceed the maximum payout of every casino. With luck, this can amount to up to 27996 additional caps from casino games.

Outside bets are "safer" as they usually include a large section of numbers on the Roulette wheel. However, the payout for an 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 Luck stat does not affect the outcome of the spin. Luck only affects the message shown after winning - with more than 5 Luck, the player will get a message "you feel lucky" after winning.

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 only place inside bets, you will lose money faster.

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

Appearances
Roulette appears in Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes

 * James Garcia created the 3D model for the Roulette table.
 * The game is based on the real world casino game of the same name.

Bugs
If you have chips on the 0 position and the ball lands in the 0 slot, it counts as a loss when it should count as a win.