Lego Casino Roulette

This classic casino game can be made from a Lego spinning mechanism and a cardboard top cone. A marble is inserted as the roulette spins, and betting is placed on which number it will land on (the grey studs implanted into the cardboard section stop the marble from landing between two numbers).

This version of roulette has a smaller wheel than usual, meaning that there are 15 numbers in total (I replaced the '5' with the special green '0') - as a result the numerical order is random as opposed to conforming to European or American standard patterns of 37/38 numbers.

The pieces required to build the spinner are shown in the image above, and the cardboard section requires a large cereal box and gloss-brown paint (plus brushes, water/solvent etc.), and scissors for cutting it into pieces and poking holes in the side.

Step 1: Build the Base of the Spinner

Much of the process is much better described with pictures. Simply follow what the pictures show!

(NOTE: image 7 should show four black 2x2 bricks - I used some 1x1s and 2x1s to make them up, as I did not have the necessary bricks to hand)

Step 2: Build the Top of the Spinner (the Part That Rotates)

Once more, follow the images. However, the following things should be noted:

- The hinge-parts were sourced from the leg of a model AT-ST (LEGO Star Wars), which is why there are different lengths

- The part shown in image 3 should be connected centrally to the top of the column of the base (built in step 1)

- The legs are connected to the central hinges horizontally, then pushed down one click to create a mild angle

Step 3: Fashion the Top Cone From a Cereal Box

- Open out the box so that it is in net-form, with the non-coloured side facing up

- Draw a circle of radius 14.5cm as close to one corner of the box as possible

- Cut this circle out

- Measure a 60 degree sector and draw it to the circumference of the circle

- Cut this sector out, leaving a major sector of 300 degrees

- Divide this into 15 sectors of equal size (20 degrees each)

- Colour one sector in green pencil (or gloss-paint if you have it), then alternately colour red-black

- Draw over the sector-lines in black marker-pen for contrast

- Draw an arc, with the same origin as the original circle, of radius 6cm and cut along it to remove a part-circle

- Bend into a cone and tape together

- Cut curved strips of cardboard, with a width of 4-5cm, from the box and tape together to form one long strip

- Bend this round the cone and tape them together to form a hat-shape

- Paint the inside and outside of the strip gloss-brown for a wooden casino-look

- Use pointed scissors to poke holes into the strip at the end of each marker-pen line, and force the grey studs in

- Place the cone on top of the spinner (it should fit quite snugly)

- Draw the numbers on. This is random, apart from that green should be '0', and odd and even should be assigned their own colours (red or black)

The images should help you through this stage too.

Step 4: Play the Game!

The complexities and subtleties of roulette are described in great detail on wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roulette

To use the roulette, spin the wheel (using the LEGO barrel as a handle) and drop the marble in. It's as simple as that.

To follow on with the LEGO theme, it can be fun to use different-coloured 2x2 bricks as gambling chips. Otherwise, you could just use standard chips from a poker set.