What is a wheel randomizer?

A wheel randomizer is a type of device that is used to generate random numbers or letters. It is most often used in gambling, games and simulations. Wheel randomizers are also used in medical research and science experiments.

Wheel randomizers typically consist of two or more concentric wheels which are set apart by a gap. The inner wheel has numbered slots, while the outer wheel has blank slots. When the wheel is spun, a random result is determined depending on which numbered slot lines up with which blank slot as the wheel spins and stops randomly.

In gambling and gaming, wheel randomizers are often used for picking meeting times and locations, deciding who plays first in a game, selecting teams for fantasy sports or choosing the order of game pieces in board games. Randomly selecting variables helps make playing more interesting by adding an element of chance to the proceedings.

In medical research and scientific experiments, wheel randomizers are often employed to determine treatment allocations for test subjects or experiments designs in randomized control trials (RCTs). Implementing a wheel randomizer method can reduce bias when studying treatments, interventions or exposure factors where participants are not aware of their group assignment (known as blinding).