Terry Clarke, Abbiati's Commercial Director, has a theory on why Roulette endures and it's a hard one to disagree with: "Why are people drawn to Roulette? There's bigger payouts on Roulette than there is on the other table games. The rewards are bigger."

He's right, of course; it's the lure of winning big without necessarily losing big, if that's your choice, or losing big and winning big. The game combines high- and low-volatility in a sense, it all depends on the player. But outside Europe, the game is far less popular. Why? "The double-zero wheel, which reduces the odds to the player quite considerably," explains Terry.

"It's a pure game of chance, there's no skill in Roulette; people like to think they have special methods, their own setups and numbers, but it's ultimately completely random." This raises an interesting psychological point; Roulette is blameless. You can't blame another player for losing, it's not the dealer's fault – the ball could end up anywhere. It's all down to 'Lady Luck'; win and she's smiling on you, lose and she isn't.

Terry is well known in the industry working for the Abbiati organisation, based in Italy, and he is adamant that his employer makes the finest wheels in the world. Abbiati's reputation is a fine one, and well deserved: Terry says, "I've seen many Roulette wheels and, as much as I want to promote our own products, I genuinely believe it's the best wheel out there. I'm not just saying that, I've seen many wheels and worked for other companies that manufacture wheels."

Abbiati also makes layouts, with wool and microfibre options, with attention paid to the nap. As the company also supplies chips, they ensure both work together. Terry elaborates: "We make sure the nap on the wool and the microfibre is smooth because the dealers have to push large numbers of chips around. A stack can be 20 pieces high, with five or ten on top of that, that's a lot of chips. If our layouts aren't smooth, as soon as you push against the nap you'll start pushing chips over. We're very careful about that, and also on our chip manufacture so they're perfectly flat and don't catch on anything."

Despite their fiercely traditional background, Abbiati is looking to the future as their wheels are now suited to working with remote terminals. They now incorporate laser technology to quickly and accurately place the ball's final destination, an essential part of remote Roulette gaming. Terry explains: "We went to laser technology because it can't miss; on most of the other systems out there, it's some sort of infra-red or pulsating light, while on a laser you have a solid beam, and as soon as that beam is broken it reads. It can't miss the ball. There's three sensors in the wheel which detect the ball's final destination, and on top of that you can add into that speed of cylinder, speed of ball, direction of cylinder, lots of information that the casino can use to analyse their wheel and table performance."

Ever the forward thinkers, open protocol has also been adopted by the company. With so many peripherals by so many manufacturers out there, Abbiati have ensured their continued presence in the casino by making their product as operator-friendly as they can.

Shufflemaster have two notable products in the Roulette market. One, the Easy Chipper, is faced with one of the most formidable tasks in the business – dethroning a machine which has near-total domination in its field, the TCSJH Chipper Champ. But as Kirsten Clark, Shufflemaster's VP Worldwide Marketing, explains. "Our Easy Chipper was designed out of our Austria office, CARD, and they approached it as the next generation machine to the Chipper Champ. At this point, the Chipper Champ had been around for about 15 years, and CARD set out to make a product that used newer technology.

"One of the key things about the Easy Chipper is it uses fewer moving parts to sort the chips. This makes it less susceptible to breakdown.

"CARD were just trying to make a more durable, more reliable, speedier, quieter chipping product to be able to provide to their key customers, and that's how it got started."

Well, their product can apparently speed operation on the Roulette table by between 20 and 25 per cent, which translates into a healthy rise in profit over a year. Whether it can dent the Chipper Champ's domination, we'll have to wait and see.

Shufflemaster's Rapid Roulette is another matter entirely. It's a marriage of the electronic and the live game, bringing the benefits of both together. Shufflemaster subsidiary Stargames, based in Australia, developed the product several years ago working with the legendary Crown Casino. As Kirsten explains: "Crown was looking for a way to maximise their roulette play. So they approached Stargames and began developing a product that combined a live roulette game, a live dealer, with entirely electronic betting. That way, their theory was, not only could they increase the number of players they were able to service per roulette wheel, but also speed up the game process by automating the chips, payouts etc and being able to really increase gameplay. Rapid Roulette was the final result. Basically, it still uses the live dealer and the live ball, with a live ball drop which is authenticated by a video camera directly over the wheel. The dealer also authenticates the result; once that occurs, all wagers are instantly resolved.

From the casino perspective that brings a couple of benefits. Number one, accuracy and security. Number two, it gives them statistics, from player behaviour to what numbers are running hot, cold… all of that is done instantly which is very difficult to do on a live table.

"Another great benefit of Rapid Roulette is the ability to expand the number of player terminals. In its basic configuration, generally 12 player terminals circle the Roulette wheel, but we have the capability to expand that exponentially through additional player terminals as well as satellite terminals, which are player terminals housed in a slot-style cabinet that can be put anywhere on the casino floor, they don't have to be near the wheel."

The company is planning to increase the game's appeal even further with wireless capability, players using a casino's remote devices to enjoy roulette wherever they want on the premises.

The only thing Rapid Roulette could really count as a negative is its size, which means Shufflemaster has to be smart about where it tries to place the game; but with smaller casinos being edged out in many markets, its potential is likely to grow. And offering up to 60 spins per hour, that translates into a large amount of added revenue from the Roulette arena in any casino.

Novomatic have, as is their custom, left an unmistakable footprint on the world of Roulette with their superb Novo TouchBet Roulette system. It uses a live wheel and player terminals, is wonderfully simple to use and players absolutely love it.

Launched more than seven years ago, it has changed gaming floors in every territory it has been sold in to become the clear market leader in Europe. In fact, it has been so successful that, through customer feedback, Novomatic has added card-based games to the platform.

It can come in two to 250 stations which are fully automated. Whenever you see this in a casino, the terminals are usually full. Player adoption has been absolute, it's completely intuitive and it's hard to see how it could be improved; it also has complete player trust as images comes from a live wheel, the perfect random number generator.

Bill validators and coin entry are available as options, and payouts can be achieved by coin or winning ticket printed from the terminal, which can be cashed at the casino cash desk.

Novo TouchBet Roulette is of course distributed by TCSJOHNHUXLEY, for whom Roulette makes up a significant percentage of the company's output and they take the game very seriously. This is reflected both in the breadth and quality of their product; they sell everything from tables to chips and accessories to Roulette wheels and the latest industry innovations.

Much of their European-focussed product is manufactured at the firm's Stoke-on-Trent facility in England, where the staff has a true sense of pride in their products. Most of the components not produced on site are sourced from within 20 miles of the facility, and moves are being made by TCSJOHNHUXLEY to bring a lot of what is outsourced within, with investment in new machinery and staff training to fill the vacuum that new technology and continuous quality improvements often bring.

TCSJOHNHUXLEY make two types of table cloth for Roulette, KRE8 synthetic and a traditional wool layout. Their wool layouts are found in the world’s most exclusive casinos and are often the choice layout for high-roller environments. TCSJOHNHUXLEY's wool cloths are traditionally screen printed by hand to customer specifications, and they use the finest cloths from British mills with historic backgrounds in quality manufacturing. KRE8 is the company's synthetic table layout, a more durable product which is, of course, burn and spill resistant. These layouts are fully customisable and are more cost effective thanks to modern printing and finishing processes. KRE8 can incorporate photographic images as a result of a high definition digital printing process, so room themes are easy to maintain from top to bottom; also, there's no restriction on size and no seams, so table design is also flexible with this material.

Peripherals are almost as important as the game itself to TCSJOHNHUXLEY. Their Chipper Champ, for example, is the dominant chipper in the worldwide market and has been since it was launched in 1980. There is increasing competition out there, and TCSJOHNHUXLEY responded to that by ensuring that their chipper’s design and functionality remained unmatched by creating the Chipper Champ 2. So what's special about this latest generation of chipper? Plenty, as it happens.

On the subject, Luke Davis, TCSJOHNHUXLEY’s Product Communications Manager commented, “We have developed the Chipper Champ 2 building on the acknowledged strengths of the current Chipper Champ Plus machine. Its improved functionality, usability and serviceability will deliver an even better experience for dealers and will ultimately have a positive impact on operator profitability”.

During the development process of the machine it seems the company spoke to everyone connected with the game so it could produce the best chipper possible. Their development took in comments and the test feedback of croupiers, casino management and field service engineers to fine tune the blue prints of the new Chipper Champ 2.

In short, it sorts chips faster than any other chipper, is apparently the quietest chipper out there, it's lighter than its predecessor, and has been redesigned with maintenance in mind. Chipper Champ 2 can be quickly programmed to reliably sort any chip from wheel checks to the most complex graphic value chips. It identifies and isolates non-conforming chips and notifies the dealer accordingly. It's designed for simple 'one chip' programming and allows the dealer to ’Hot Swap’ the columns during game play depending on which chip colour they are most likely to need.

“Dealers really like our ‘Hot Swap’ feature. If one colour chip is turning over more quickly and it happens to be located in the furthest column away from the dealer, it's a simple, almost instantaneous operation to shift that column across and make it more accessible,” says Luke Davis.

With an intuitive screen and multi-button interface, it's easy to operate, leaving the dealer in theory free to concentrate on dealing and speeding up play – therefore increasing profitability. TCSJOHNHUXLEY claim the Chipper Champ 2 can increase productivity typically by 15 per cent, which is a significant rise. Integrated IP networking is standard on it as well and there is talk of future developments incorporating RFID chip detection, so table performance monitoring in real time is covered.

Display signage is becoming increasingly effective in conjunction with Roulette tables. The technology has been around for a while, but only now are companies using that technology fully for the benefit of the operator.

TCSJOHNHUXLEY's foray into Roulette signage gives casinos a choice between its market leading Animator LED and the high-end e-FX gaming displays, which both present results, gaming history, winning streaks and game stats to customers – and of course potential customers.

On an e-FX display live TV and video can be shown too, meaning customers need not miss a kick during big football tournaments, which is often a time when casino trade slows down. For fully programmable media content delivery, its One Link Media System delivers multiple streams to e-FX so that casinos can benefit from both attracting the eye of patrons and marketing directly to players at the table. This kind of marketing has been under-used in most casinos and can be very effective with the right presentation. e-FX is available in striking 17" and 23" screen sizes, with a choice of silver, black or gold aluminium cases.

Roulette wheel analysis software has many uses, not least detecting a problem with the set-up of a wheel, i.e. lack of proper cleaning, or incorrectly set levelling rotation that ensures even wear, which could lead to a downturn in profit. TCSJOHNHUXLEY's Roulette Wheel Analysis software gives the casino manager a complete overview of wheel performance over time, and also full maintenance tracking analysis. It's powerful software, far too detailed to go into here – it could be a feature in itself. Needless to say, it has the attention to detail and the usability that marks out a TCSJOHNHUXLEY product. Best of all it can be retrofitted to any existing Roulette wheel using the company's reader heads.

“Roulette wheels must deliver not only random numbers reliably but must also make it extremely difficult for an advantage player to gain an edge by predicting the section of the wheel most likely to receive the ball” says Angus Noble, TCSJOHNHUXLEY’s UK Account Director. “A badly worn or badly maintained wheel may exhibit characteristics which might mean that the wheel behaves in a way that is not as unpredictable as is required to ensure the integrity of the game and maintain the house edge. Roulette Wheel Analysis allows the operator to monitor all aspects of wheel performance and ensure that it can be proactively managed at all times thus protecting their margins”

Side bets have become a focus for many casinos trying to get maximum profitability from its players, and TCSJOHNHUXLEY cater for just that with a neat Roulette side bet.

Roulette Rage is simple to play and is designed to increase turnover by offering players the chance to win odds of up to 2000 to 1. Exciting for players, this side bet pays out based on how many consecutive colours (red or black) appear in a row, from 5 up to 15. The game is played using a standard single or double zero Roulette wheel which is spun by the dealer in the exact same manner – it does not effect the procedures of the standard game. After the side bet is placed, the more consecutive colours the higher the payoff odds will be.

Of course, TCSJOHNHUXLEY is famous for its traditional Roulette wheels too. It's easy to look at the peripherals and the technology and to forget that Roulette is, at heart, a simple game and that's a huge part of its appeal. The company has been making wheels for 35 years now, so they must be doing something right.

On the TCSJOHNHUXLEY factory floor, every step of a Roulette wheel's creation is stringently tested, as it must be with any manufacturer. A badly-made wheel creates a bad reputation, of course, and loses a casino money. The wheels have a choice of separator rings, either the traditional style or the company's own Starburst style, which is less predictable. The Starburst design makes the ball behave more erratically as it comes to a stop giving added security to operators.

The wheel bowl utilises highly stable wood composite materials, which renders them resistant to temperature fluctuation. They are finished with natural wood veneers and multiple coats of hard polyester varnish for elegant styling. The bowl lining is aluminium cast, the ball stops stainless steel; there's more, of course, but you get the idea. It's about solidity, consistency, and delivering a reliable product.

The next step on from the traditional wheel is the aforementioned Saturn wheel. This combines the quality craftsmanship of the traditional wheels with technology, as three inbuilt detector heads ensure results are communicated quickly and accurately to punters.

Saturn also has a choice of separator, and has built-in diagnostics and error indicators to pare downtime to a minimum. Most significantly, perhaps, it features the Saturn Data Logger, which allows the data capture of winning number results and ball drop behaviour. With the capacity to store six years of events on 24-hour operation, Data Logger records precise information on all wheel events; winning numbers, direction and speed of wheel and all other significant information including the ball drop zone.

The Saturn's ball track is made of Velstone, which protects it from wear and tear and offers an attractive stone-effect finish. As well as integrating with all TCSJOHNHUXLEY product, the Saturn can also talk to up to four third-party systems, making it compatible with an operation's existing signage if necessary.

Following on from the success of TouchBet Roulette, TCSJOHNHUXLEY looked to develop other successful electronic based Roulette products. One such product is TouchTable Real Roulette, a table-top design game that has been created to offer a unique approach to playing Roulette in what are traditionally seen as non-gaming areas of the casino, such as a lounge or bar. It's a real table design, with four seats around it, and a flat surface so patrons can eat, drink and make merry – all while enjoying Roulette. The advantage this potentially has over, for example, individual remote terminals is that it's more immediately sociable. It encourages a group of up to four people to play and interact as, with a flat surface, they are facing each other rather than the screen. Positioned in a bar area and promoted in the right way, this could be an excellent earner for a casino. The graphics are bold, the layout intuitive for anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of the game, and the surface is totally drink-proof, which is a bonus!

A step further forward is TouchTable MultiPLAY Roulette. This could be the next big step for Roulette, time will tell as it makes its debut on gaming floors this summer. What makes TouchTable MultiPLAY Roulette so unique and authentic for players is that unlike any other touch screen betting interface it can identify each individual player and their betting activity. In essence this is a live table game. The table is a combination of live wheel and croupier, with a full-size electronic multiplayer betting surface.

The table is actually a 56" Quad HD LCD screen, so the graphics are pin-sharp and eye-catching and the betting layout remains the same size as a standard table. Quad HD offers four times higher resolution than a standard HD (High Definition) screen. While the resolution in a standard HD is 1920x1080 pixels, Quad-HD offers 3840x2160 pixels resolution.

“I am really exited by MultiPLAY Roulette.” says Angus Noble, TCSJOHNHUXLEY’s UK Account Director. “As the UK market expands more and more people are visiting casinos, particularly at weekends. Modern UK casinos can often have three or four times as many customers on the premises than the number of gaming positions actually available for play. MultiPLAY Roulette offers a way of delivering a live game of Roulette quickly and efficiently to a great many people. Most of the time lost at busy periods is caused by the time it takes to clear the table and settle bets between spins. It is hugely frustrating for customers and staff alike. MultiPLAY resolves that issue at a stroke whilst still delivering a very real, live table experience”

Most interestingly, MultiPLAY is flexible and can be configured in a two-table ‘Albatros’ or three-table 'T' configuration, so up to 21 players can enjoy the action around a single wheel. Combine that with, for example, a Saturn wheel feeding Novo TouchBet terminals and this is potentially an exceptionally profitable form of Roulette – all using one dealer.

“The flexibility that will allow multiple tables connected to a single wheel should offer great operational efficiency. Given the greater levels of security that the system affords the operator I predict that they will soon be seeking to negotiate changes to the current inspection ratios resulting in the deployment of a greater proportion of casino staff in direct customer interface roles. Dealer skills for MultiPLAY can become far more focused on customer service and entertainment delivering a great gaming experience and driving casino businesses forward” continues Angus Nobel.

Not content with 're-inventing the wheel', so to speak, TCSJOHNHUXLEY have another Roulette table which brings something new. LuminAR is a table designed to help beginners get to know the game, assists dealer accuracy and helps surveillance for game security.

LuminAR makes the game of Roulette easier to follow with ‘place your bets’, 'finish betting' and 'no more bets', plus all winning sections displayed more predominantly. The table uses high intensity LEDs through the layout to add further excitement to the traditional game of Roulette, attracting novice and inexperienced players to the table.

Results are automatically sent to LuminAR. It ties in neatly with the TCSJOHNHUXLEY Saturn wheel, which has three inbuilt readers to pinpoint the winning number.

Of course, if the casino floor is filled on a Saturday night and there are no novices to look out for who might most enjoy LuminAR, with the lights turned off the table looks, feels and plays like any other.

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