For more than 25 years, the TriBeCa loft that houses Roullete was a crucial laboratory for New York’s downtown-music scene. It was a place where composers, improvisers and electronic producers could gather to produce their work. It was a space where many of today’s leading experimental artists first began their careers, including trombonist Jim Staley and harpist Zeena Parkins. It was a place that pushed the boundaries of performance art, and influenced an entire generation of musicians to take up improvisational and avant-garde techniques.
Roullete was founded in 1978 by a group of five recent University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign graduates, among them Jim Staley, who’s retiring this year as the group’s artistic director. Despite the many changes that have taken place at the venue, its mission remains unchanged. “To give people the space to explore a wide range of experimental musical forms,” Staley says. “To create an atmosphere of community and openness.”
The game of roulette, a gambling activity wherein a ball is released into a revolving wheel and bets are placed on which compartment it will come to rest in when it stops, has a long and checkered history. It is thought to have originated in the 17th Century with French mathematician Blaise Pascal, who figured out the odds and probabilities of the game. In its modern form, it has become a major attraction in casinos around the world.
To play the game, players must bet on a number and color of chips to indicate their wager. After the croupier spins the wheel, the balls are dropped into the pockets corresponding to the numbers on the betting table and the winning bets are paid out according to the paytable. A losing bet will be removed from the table and a new round of betting is begun.
A number of systems have been devised to help a player gain an advantage over the house in the game of roulette. These include the Fibonacci system, which involves placing outside bets with low odds (such as red/black) and inside bets with higher odds (such as odd/even). This method allows players to achieve larger wins and limits their losses so they do not accumulate too quickly.
One of the most important things to remember about playing the game of roulette is that you should always be aware of the house edge. The house edge is 5.26% for American roulette and 2.7% for European roulette. This may seem minor, but it can add up if you’re not careful. In addition, a strong roulette strategy can help to reduce the house edge even more. This is because, as mentioned above, the house edge is a percentage of the total amount of money that is lost on bets.