Roulette is a game that has been around longer than casinos in the US were made. This centuries-old gambling game was invented several hundred years ago and remains one of the most popular games for gamblers. Whether you love frequenting land-based establishments to get your fill or prefer playing online roulette games, there is much to look forward to in every roulette session.
The rules of this game are easy to learn, and you do not need too much time to start playing. Roulette comes with a wide betting layout that offers plenty of wagers for gamblers with every risk-tolerance level. From the riskier inside bets with the promise of a higher return if you win to the safer outside bets with lower payouts but better chances of winning, you can define your own approach to betting when playing roulette.
Of Roulette, Superstition, and Lucky Numbers
Now, roulette is a completely random game. Whether the ball lands on a pocket that leads to you winning your wager depends entirely on chance, or lady luck if that works better for you. Of course, that has never stopped people from coming up with purported “foolproof roulette strategies” or banking on superstition with lucky numbers to “increase their chances of winning.”
There is no such thing as a foolproof strategy to win at roulette every time, but no matter how much people learn or how rational they generally are, some people just cannot help being superstitious. Despite the game’s random nature, people still tend to carry a lot of superstition regarding certain numbers when playing roulette.
Gambling is the one place that brings out superstition in even the most rational of people, especially roulette. Despite all the awareness of probabilities and mathematical evidence disproving the role of lucky numbers, people cannot help themselves.
Today, we’ll take a look at some of the most common numbers played by roulette enthusiasts and why.
The Number 17
Perhaps the most popular number people place single-number wagers on is 17. If you ever head to a casino, any croupier will tell you the same. 17 has been a popular number played in roulette, but not without reason. The number 17 is smack-dab in the middle of the betting layout on the American and French roulette tables, making it an easy choice, but there’s more to it’s popularity than its placement.
Mike Ashley, a businessman and the former owner of a football club in England, was at a private casino located in Mayfair all the way back in ‘08. Ashley placed a “complete bet,” which essentially covers everything on the betting layout. He also placed a single-number bet on 17. He pulled off a massive £1.3 million win from that bet, putting him and the number 17 into the stuff of legends in roulette.
You might think that James Bond’s lucky number would be 7, given that his codename is 007. But that was not the case for Sean Connery back in 1962. The iconic James Bond actor was playing at a casino in St. Vincent in Italy, where he made five consecutive straight bets on the number 17.
His luck wasn’t great with the first two bets, but he insisted on placing another straight bet on 17 the third time around. As fate would have it, he won that bet. He wouldn’t be James Bond if he didn’t have a knack for taking risks. He placed the same bet in the fourth round, winning it against astronomical odds. Any reasonable person would count their lucky stars and walk away with their winnings, but that was not the case here. Connery wagered his entire winnings back on 17 for one more round — he won again!
The Number 7
The number 7 is popular across several cultures. From the seven steps that newborn baby Buddha took to the seven heavens in Hinduism and Islam and the seven chakras in Hinduism, the number holds a lot of value for many people. There are seven days in a week, seven continents on Earth, and James Bond, the iconic gambler/super spy’s codename is 007.
The fact that it is also a prime number is another reason people tend to choose the number 7. With so many people with various reasons to be superstitious about the number 7, it is no surprise that it is one of the most common numbers played in roulette.
The Number 3
“Good things come in threes.”
The number 3 is another one that croupiers find people placing straight bets on in roulette. In the Chinese culture, the number three is considered lucky due to how it sounds similar to the Chinese word for life or birth. The number 3 could also represent the different stages of life: birth, marriage, and death. It is another prime number like the numbers 17 and 7.
Wrapping it up
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