Roulette is an elegant game of chance and luck that offers glamour, mystery and excitement to casino-goers. It’s a simple game with a surprising level of depth for serious betters, and the right strategy can reap high rewards.
The word roulette is French for “little wheel.” In this game, players place bets on the outcome of a spinning cylinder with thirty-six (or 37 on American wheels) colored compartments, painted alternately red and black, with a single-zero and two green pockets on European-style wheels. A croupier spins the wheel and sends a ball rolling into one of the pockets, and bettors try to predict where it will land.
Though fanciful theories claim the game was invented by 17th century French mathematician Blaise Pascal, or by Chinese monks, it evolved into its current form in the gambling dens of France. The game became popular in Europe and then spread across the Atlantic to the United States. It has since remained a fixture in casinos and other gaming establishments worldwide.
When a player places a bet, they must first place their chips on the table map. This map shows the individual numbers as well as groups of numbers called streets. Outside bets are usually cheaper and have a higher likelihood of hitting, while inside bets require the most skill to win. Using both bets to maximize your chances of winning is the best way to play.
Roulette is not an easy game to beat. A team of physics postgraduates known as the Eudaemons used theoretical insights and a rudimentary computer concealed in a shoe to beat the house in Nevada in the 1970s, but they didn’t publish their results and the method has never been replicated.
The spacious TriBeCa loft that once housed Roulette looms large in the memory. For 25 years, established and emerging composers, improvisers and electronic producers would occupy its long main room, a space that cultivated an aesthetic guided as much by John Coltrane as by John Cage, providing artists like Zeena Parkins, Malcolm Goldstein, Ikue Mori and John Zorn with the space, resources and recorded documentation to develop their craft.
Erik Kristopher Myers’s Roulette is a film that is as compelling as it is difficult to watch, an uncompromising work of art that will only enhance the reputation of its makers. It’s an indication of the filmmaker’s potential to direct full-length feature films that don’t resort to gimmickry or manipulative shock tactics and will hopefully bring more producers in Hollywood around to his uncompromising vision. It is also an indicator that independent filmmaking is not dead.