Reason #4 why the Wizard likes Bovada:

One-Stop Shopping

Bovada offers the triple crown of gambling: casino, poker, and sports. Many other casinos have tacked on poker as an afterthought, and many poker rooms have tacked on a casino as an afterthought, and the lack of attention shows, sometimes painfully. And very few of these sites let you make sports wagers.

But Bovada doesn’t just offer all three, they do each one well, and everything’s integrated. It’s easy to play all three off one deposit, off just one account.

Another nice thing about Bovada is that you don’t need a separate account to play casino games with fake money. In fact you do not even need an account for that at all, you can just click over there and play. Finally, Bovada usernames are only six or seven characters long making them possible to remember. By contrast some competitors’ usernames are extremely long and cumbersome.

Visit Bovada

Boule

Last Update: Oct 28, 2005

Introduction

La Boule is a similar to roulette. I noticed the game at a casino in Antibes, France. The game features 9 numbers and 3 colors of which to bet on. The only time I saw the game it was closed at the time of day I was there. However, I could tell it is played on a large wooden wheel and from casino literature I know it is played with a rubber ball a little smaller than a tennis ball. The wheel looks like this...

Image source: Casinos Barriere rule book.

Rules

As the above image shows the wheel is divided into 9 numbers, 1 to 9; and three colors, black, red, and yellow. The numbers 1, 3, 6, and 8 are black; 2, 4, 7, and 9 are red; and 5 is yellow. After the dealer calls "Rien ne va plus" (no more bets) he will spin the wheel and ball; the depression where the ball lands determines the outcome. The following image shows the betting layout.

Image source: Casinos Barriere rule book.

The table below shows the available bets, what each pays, probability of winning, and house edge.

La Boule Odds
Bet	Pays	Probability	House Edge
Red	1 to 1	44.44%	11.11%
Black	1 to 1	44.44%	11.11%
Low (1-4)	1 to 1	44.44%	11.11%
High (6-9)	1 to 1	44.44%	11.11%
Odd	1 to 1	44.44%	11.11%
Even	1 to 1	44.44%	11.11%
1	7 to 1	11.11%	11.11%
2	7 to 1	11.11%	11.11%
3	7 to 1	11.11%	11.11%
4	7 to 1	11.11%	11.11%
5	7 to 1	11.11%	11.11%
6	7 to 1	11.11%	11.11%
7	7 to 1	11.11%	11.11%
8	7 to 1	11.11%	11.11%
9	7 to 1	11.11%	11.11%

As the table above shows, every bet has a house edge of 11.11%. This is much worse than roulette, especially European roulette. So, given the choice between la boule and roulette, always choose roulette.

Thanks to Dave Hubbard for sending me a rule booklet on the game.

Malaysia Rules

The Genting casino in Malaysia has a game called French Boule. Under the Singapore rules a ball is thrown into an arena with many indentations, each with a number from 0 to 9. The total number of indentations for each number is equal.

One type of bet is on a specific number, for example 5. The probability of winning is 10%. Wins pay 8 to 1. The house edge is 10%.

Another is on a set of three numbers, in particular 1,4, or 7; 2, 5, or 8; and 3, 6, or 9. The probability of winning is 30%. Wins pay 2 to 1. The house edge is also 10%.