[Mike Holmes]

Steve, was that the demo at Origins? We'll have to talk to Brennan or whoever ran it then about doing better.

One thing about the roulette wheel that I think is cool is that the thirty seconds acts as a timer. That is, the way to properly use it to build suspense is to only allow bets to be made after the wheel starts spinning, and then close out the betting once it's about to stop. So you have only so long to make your decisions about what to put your chips on.

And this is important because what the roulette wheel mechanic does, that few other mechanism do, is allow you to decide how much risk you want to take. If you put all of your chips on one number, you're likely to lose them all, but you get a huge payout if it works. The point being that you can create literally any set of odds you like with enough chips. You as the player get to decide just how deep you want to go on any particular contest.

Combined with the timer element, it puts some pressure on you to decide your strategy in a limited time. Which probably works better for some than others. But I think it's pretty neat. Not just another randomizer.

Anyhow, if the timer thing doesn't get you, in addition to the dice method mentioned, you can get these little roulette wheels from novelty stores that cost about a buck and take only a couple of seconds to come up with a number (I had several when I was a kid). But, personally, I'll stick with my larger roulette wheel.

Mike