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Weekend


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July 9, 2004

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q.  From a Williamstown, Mass., reader:  "In the movies, whenever James Bond goes to the casinos in Monte Carlo, roulette seems to be the game that everybody is playing.  Whenever I go to casinos here in the U.S., however, hardly anyone appears to be playing roulette. What's up?"

    A.  Quite simply, roulette is a better deal in Europe than America, says Williams College economist Victor Matheson.  In Europe, roulette consists of a wheel with 37 numbers from 1-36 alternately colored red or black plus a number 0 in green.  American roulette wheels have 38 numbers which include both a 0 and a 00.


     
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