Spin the Wheel

How to use?

List the options in the field, one per line, then hit Update Wheel. Once that's done, click Spin and let the draw pick an option at random.

Wheel of fortune: from medieval tarot (Arcanum X) to the game show

Few images cross so many centuries as the spinning wheel. Long before television, the medieval imagination depicted Rota Fortunae, the wheel of the Roman goddess Fortuna, as a giant disk turned by an inscrutable hand — kings rose to the top one moment and were cast to the bottom the next. This iconography survived in cathedral stained glass, in Boethius' writings and, from the fifteenth century onward, in tarot decks, where it became the tenth Major Arcanum: card X, the Wheel of Fortune.

In the Rider-Waite-Smith deck (1910), the card shows a six- or eight-spoked wheel with letters T-A-R-O (or R-O-T-A, Latin for "wheel") around the rim. Upright, it suggests destiny and natural cycles; reversed, sudden reverses. The number ten embodies the idea that everything that goes up must come down. Our digital wheel borrows the same archetype: a circle divided into sectors, a pointer and a moment of suspense before the result.

Television history: Wheel of Fortune (1975, USA), Roda a Roda on SBT, Silvio Santos

Wheel of Fortune debuted on January 6, 1975, on NBC, created by Merv Griffin as a hybrid of Hangman and roulette. The first host was Chuck Woolery, alongside Susan Stafford. In 1981, Woolery was replaced by Pat Sajak, then a KNBC weatherman; one year later, Vanna White took over the alphabet panel and formed one of TV's longest-running duos, lasting more than four decades. In 2024, Ryan Seacrest replaced Sajak as main host on the syndicated version, broadcast in over a hundred countries.

In Brazil, the format had several adaptations. The earliest was Roletrando, presented by Silvio Santos at SBT in the early 1990s. In 2003, SBT relaunched the licensed game as Roda a Roda Chevrolet: the pilot aired during the Teleton on October 3, 2003, with Silvio himself competing against Hebe Camargo, Ratinho and Hermano Henning. The show then went through sponsors — Baú da Felicidade, Johnson & Johnson and, especially, Jequiti, which has named the program since 2008.

In 2017, Rebeca Abravanel became the official host, marking the show's institutional renewal. Roda a Roda is now one of the pillars of SBT's Sunday line-up. The classic mechanic — a wheel with cash values, "Pass" and "Lose Everything" sectors, and a word puzzle — remains essentially unchanged, proof that a strong format can endure for half a century with only cosmetic adjustments.

Mechanics and probability: uniform odds per sector, variable weights

A digital wheel is a draw with uniform distribution: with n equal sectors, the probability of each is 1/n — 20% for five options, 10% for ten, 5% for twenty. It is the same model as a fair die, technically called discrete uniform distribution.

The tool here assigns equal arcs to all items, so probabilities are uniform regardless of order. For biased draws you would need weights: assign numbers to each option (e.g. 5, 2, 1), sum them, draw a random number in that range and walk the list until reaching the slice. This is the technique used in video-game loot boxes and giveaways with rare prizes. Note: in a series of spins, the probability of the same result twice in a row is 1/n, not 1/n² — each draw is independent. The "gambler's fallacy" has no statistical basis; the wheel has no memory.

Modern applications: classroom draws, group decisions, marketing/giveaways

Outside television, digital wheels are widely used in everyday situations:

• Classroom: choose which student answers the question, who presents next, group order in a seminar.
• Family/friends: which restaurant for dinner, which movie to watch, who pays the bill.
• Corporate raffles: giveaway winners on social media, end-of-year prizes.
• Marketing and gamification: e-commerce spin-the-wheel pop-ups offering discount coupons, increasing engagement.
• Sports and games: choose teams, starting player, picking order in fantasy leagues.
• Sweepstakes (with weights): when there are different prize categories and you want big prizes to be rarer than small ones.

The advantage of an automated wheel is impartiality: nobody can claim the bowl was tilted or the slip was shaken less.

Difference from casino roulette (this does NOT simulate betting)

A wheel of fortune is different from casino roulette. Roulette is a regulated gambling product with 37 or 38 numbered sectors (European and American), a built-in house edge (2.7% and 5.26%) and a complex pay-out table — designed so that, long-term, the house always wins.

This tool does not simulate bets, handle money or generate any game of chance for stakes. It is just a randomizer: a way to automate drawing between options that you decide. Use it for non-financial decisions and casual draws — not as a betting platform, which would require specific regulation.

Randomness: how JavaScript produces the result (Math.random vs crypto.getRandomValues)

In the browser, the most common way to generate a random number is Math.random(), which returns a value between 0 (inclusive) and 1 (exclusive). Modern engines (V8, SpiderMonkey, JavaScriptCore) implement xorshift128+, a pseudo-random generator (PRNG) with a long enough period for general-purpose use. To pick one of n sectors, just multiply: Math.floor(Math.random() * n).

For applications requiring cryptographic-grade randomness (passwords, keys, official raffles with prize value), the right API is crypto.getRandomValues(), available in all modern browsers via the Web Crypto API. It uses entropy from the operating system and is unpredictable even if the attacker knows previous results — which is not the case with Math.random. For drawing a pizza or a partner for a school project, Math.random is more than enough.

Curiosities: top prize, records, online RNG governance

• In the American Wheel of Fortune, Autumn Erhard won US$ 1,030,340 in 2013, one of the highest single-round prizes ever.
• Roda a Roda Jequiti has paid the R$ 1 million grand prize on several occasions, with weekly carry-overs.
• Vanna White recorded an estimated 8,000+ episodes over four decades — a record for a single-program TV co-host.
• "Provably fair" raffle sites use cryptographic hashing: the seed is committed before the draw and revealed afterwards, allowing verification.
• In the Marseille Tarot, the Wheel shows three animals — a monkey climbing, a crowned dog on top, a beast falling — symbolizing rise, climax and decline.

FAQ

Is the result really random?

Yes, in the practical sense. The tool uses Math.random, which is uniform and unpredictable for everyday use. For monetary draws, prefer tools that expose the seed and use crypto.getRandomValues.

Can I repeat the same option to give it more weight?

Yes. A name listed three times has triple the chance — the simplest way to implement weights without code.

Does the spinning animation influence the result?

No. The winner is decided before the animation starts; the animation just shows the wheel decelerating in the correct sector.

Can I use this for legal raffles with prizes?

Brazilian sweepstakes regulated by SECAP require authorization, audit and certified RNGs. For internal events and content creators, the tool is sufficient.

Does the wheel "remember" previous results?

No. Each spin is independent. There is no built-in anti-repeat mode — if needed, draw and remove the option before spinning again.