Side Bets and Unusual Games
Ten questions on side bets, odd wheels and card roulette, drawn from a pool of fifteen. None of the answers is 2.70%.
Colors, Newar, Prime Time, the Bonus Box, Pro-Aggressive, Lightning Launch, card roulette, Chinese Roulette and one joke system. Multiple choice, shuffled each time, with a link to the page that explains each one you miss.
Scoring
10: you could price a new side betbetSide betAn optional extra wager attached to the main game, usually on a streak, a bonus event or a jackpot. Almost always dearer than the standard bets.Read full → before the casino does.
8–9: you read pay tablesmoneyPay tableThe list of what each bet or result pays. On machines and side bets, it is where the house edge is set.Read full → the way the house does.
5–7: the Side Bets and Unusual Wheels pages cover the rest.
Under 5: start with House EdgemathHouse edgeThe share of each stake the casino keeps on average: 2.70% in European roulette.Read full →, then come back.
Where the questions come from
Most of them come from the exercises in Bollman’s Mathematics of the Big Four Casino Table Games (2021), and the answers are our own working. Every one has the same moral as the standard bets: count the outcomes, multiply by the payoutsmoneyPayoutWhat a winning bet returns, quoted as “X to 1” on top of the returned stake.Read full →, and the price is what is left. The difference is that here the price changes from bet to bet, and twice it favors the player on paper.
Questions
Sixteen spins feels like too few for a repeat. With 38 pocketsequipmentPocketOne of the 37 numbered compartments on the rotor. Also: slot, cup.Read full → a repeat is about 97.5% likely.
Some are, most were short-lived. The arithmetic carries over to whatever replaces them.
Comic relief
Fifteen questions. None of the answers is 2.70%.
Sources
- Bollman, M. Mathematics of the Big Four Casino Table Games: Blackjack, Baccarat, Craps, & Roulette.