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Vesper Lynd on a roulette table.
Roulette is a casino game named after the French word meaning little wheel which was likely developed from the Italian game Biribi. In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various groupings of numbers, the color red or black, whether the number is odd or even, or if the numbers are high (19–36) or low (1–18). To determine the winning number, a croupier spins a wheel in one direction, then spins a ball in the opposite direction around a tilted circular track running around the outer edge of the wheel. The ball eventually loses momentum, passes through an area of deflectors, and falls onto the wheel and into one of thirty-seven (single-zero, French or European style roulette) or thirty-eight (double-zero, American style roulette) or thirty-nine (triple-zero, "Sands Roulette") coloured and numbered pockets on the wheel. The winnings are then paid to anyone who has placed a successful bet. Both French and American style roulette are featured in Bond.
These are not to be confused, of course, with Russian Roulette which is when a person fires a revolver at someone's head with one bullet in it.
Novels[]
Fleming Novels[]
Diamonds are Forever[]
James Bond receives $1,000 from the mob and is instructed to gamble four hands at The Tiara in Las Vegas – a casino owned by Seraffimo Spang. After pressing his luck in The Tiara and turning his $5,000 payout into $20,000 in a game of roulette. In retaliation, Bond is driven off the road and is captured by the Mob and tortured, aboard Seraffimo's historic train in a recreated ghost town named "Spectreville."
Post-Fleming novels[]
Forever and a Day[]
Nikolai Stolypin, was going to the casino night after night to play roulette. Ruined, Stolypin once threatened to destroy the casino with the arming of the ship, if it was not repaid, to avenge his loss of money at the game. Bond then reasoned and let go of the casino with money in exchange for the transmission frequencies of the ship.
Trigger Mortis[]
Gloria Keller draws attention to herself while drinking, gambling, and spending frivolously, burning $5000 in just one session, playing roulette.
Bond films[]
Official[]
Diamonds are Forever[]
Plenty O'Toole playing roulette.
Plenty O'Toole is a keen roulette player, and a bad one. She plays along with Bond.
The World is Not Enough[]
American Roulette (left) and Baccarat (right) at Zukovsky's casino
Zukovsky's Le Casino L'Or Noir has roulette among the games on offer.
Unofficial[]
Casino Royale (1967)[]
Roulette is among the games that vesper plays at Casino Royale. At one point towards the end of the film, a roulette wheel flies off into the casino which flies off delivering hallucinogenic gas.
Television[]
James Bond Jr.[]
James Bond Jr.'s roulette wheel
Features a Electro-hypnotic roulette wheel in the episode James Bond Jr. (TV series); Deadly Recall. Several wheels were created by S.C.U.M. agent, Dr. Derange, and placed in casinos across Monte Carlo and the French riviera to ensnare their wealthy patrons.
Video Games[]
James Bond 007[]
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Roulette table at the Marrakech Casino
The Marrakech Casino has roulette on offer.
Rules of the game[]
Roulette players have a variety of betting options. Placing inside bets is either selecting the exact number of the pocket the ball will land in on the wheel, or a small range of pockets based on their proximity on the layout. Players wishing to bet on the 'outside' will select bets on larger positional groupings of pockets, the pocket colour, or whether the winning number is odd or even. The payout odds for each type of bet are based on its probability.
The roulette table usually imposes minimum and maximum bets, and these rules usually apply separately for all of a player's inside and outside bets for each spin. For inside bets at roulette tables, some casinos may use separate roulette table chips of various colours to distinguish players at the table. Players can continue to place bets as the ball spins around the wheel until the dealer announces "no more bets" or <<rien ne va plus.>>.
When a winning number and color is determined by the roulette wheel, the dealer will place a marker, also known as a dolly, on that winning number on the roulette table layout. When the dolly is on the table, no players may place bets, collect bets, or remove any bets from the table. The dealer will then sweep away all other losing bets either by hand or by rake, and determine all of the payouts to the remaining inside and outside winning bets. When the dealer is finished making payouts, the marker is removed from the board where players collect their winnings and make new bets. The winning chips remain on the board.