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Spin City (Updated!)

What’s the best strategy for playing roulette?

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Spin City (Updated!)

What’s the best strategy for playing roulette?

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Check it out! This lesson was just updated in September 2024, and we hope you love the new and improved version. If you've already prepped an earlier version, fear not, you can still find those here through Thursday December 5, 2024.

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Spin City - Student Handout.pdf
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Spin City - Teacher Guide.pdf
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2023-2024 Versions

In the fall of 2024, Citizen Math released updated versions of every lesson in our library, plus a few new ones! We know you may have already prepped an earlier version or planned a repeat of last year, so we're continuing to make these earlier versions available through Thursday December 5, 2024.

You can find the new lessons through the regular search, and we hope you love them as much as we do. You can read more about these updates in Our Community.

What’s the best way to play roulette? As glamorized in casino ads around the world, the prospect of winning big on a spin of roulette can set hearts racing. And yet somehow the house always wins in the end!

In this lesson, students use probabilities and odds to analyze roulette payouts and debate the optimal strategy for winning the game (including not playing at all).

REAL WORLD TAKEAWAYS

  • Roulette is a popular casino game of chance in which the player bets on a number (or range of numbers)
  • In the long-run, people should expect to lose money playing roulette, and casinos should expect to gain money.
  • Casinos are in the business of making money. Any game they offer is likely to be in their advantage over the long-run.
  • Though not everyone does, you can use probabilities and expected value to inform life choices.

MATH OBJECTIVES

  • Describe the probability of an event given a sample space
  • Calculate expected value
  • Reason with probabilities to inform real-world decisions
This complex task is best as a culminating unit activity after students have developed formal knowledge and conceptual understanding.
Algebra 1
Probability (Beg.)
Algebra 1
Probability (Beg.)
Content Standards S.CP.3 Understand the conditional probability of A given B as P(A and B)/P(B), and interpret independence of A and B as saying that the conditional probability of A given B is the same as the probability of A, and the conditional probability of B given A is the same as the probability of B. S.MD.5 (+) Weigh the possible outcomes of a decision by assigning probabilities to payoff values and finding expected values. (a) Find the expected payoff for a game of chance. For example, find the expected winnings from a state lottery ticket or a game at a fast- food restaurant. (b) Evaluate and compare strategies on the basis of expected values. For example, compare a high-deductible versus a low-deductible automobile insurance policy using various, but reasonable, chances of having a minor or a major accident. S.MD.7 (+) Analyze decisions and strategies using probability concepts (e.g., product testing, medical testing, pulling a hockey goalie at the end of a game).
Mathematical Practices MP.3 Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. MP.7 Look for and make use of structure.

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Great anytime, including at the beginning of a unit before students have any formal introduction to the topic.

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Great anytime, including at the beginning of a unit before students have any formal introduction to the topic.

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Appropriate most times as students are developing conceptual understanding.