Boule (gambling game)

The number five corresponds to the zéro in roulette: if the boule falls on the five, all simple chance bets are lost.

Boule is played for low stakes compared to roulette, especially in resorts where there is no concession for the Grand Jeu, i.e. a casino.

The winning number is not chosen, however, by throwing a ball, but by a mechanical device that simulates a horse race en miniature.

The pockets of many Boule wheels are decorated with pictures of horses in commemoration of Petits Chevaux.

Boule figures in the short story The Tuppenny Millionaire by P G Wodehouse, first published in The Strand Magazine in October 1912, and in the story collection The Man Upstairs published in January 1914 by Methuen & Co. George meets his fiancée as he is playing boule in the south of France.

The pockets of many Boule wheels are decorated with horses recalling the Petits chevaux .
Picture from the catalogue of the firm of Jost, Paris, 1905 (at the Swiss Museum of Games )
Detailed shot of the Petits chevaux table at the Swiss Games Museum.