Roulette
Roulette is a game at the Mauville Game Corner in Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. It is based on the game roulette, which can be found at many real-world casinos.
Play
The roulette wheel has twelve spaces. Each space has one of three colors and one of four Pokémon: yellow, green, and purple; Makuhita, Azurill, Skitty, and Wynaut). By betting where a ball will land, players can win Coins.
Bets can be placed in three different ways: by single space, by color, or by Pokémon. Winning a bet by space returns twelve times as much as was originally bet, by Pokémon yields four times the amount bet, and winning by color gives three times as much. Each ball remains on the wheel until the wheel is reset, once six balls have been put into play. This changes the odds for future bets, as only one ball can fit into each space.
A bet on a Pokémon or color increases its payout when some of the possibilities are taken off the board. The multiplier of the payout is always equal to 12 divided by the number of empty spaces in the bet type. For example, if a bet has already landed on a Wynaut, that row will have a x6 multiplier instead of the usual x4 multiplier.
Strategy and probabilities
Because the payouts are calculated based on an empty board, the odds favor the player as the more balls fill the roulette wheel. For example, on an empty board, the payout of a single space (x12) matches its probability (1/12). After five spins, the payout remains the same, but the probability of a win increases to 1/7, giving the player a 71% edge on the final spin. This advantage (30.64% on average) in odds favors the player in the long run, but the small bet amounts inhibit winning fortunes quickly.
