Roulette wheel

Add items and spin to pick one at random.

Add items and spin.

Five people, five opinions, and nobody willing to commit to where lunch is coming from. A wheel settles it in ten seconds and, more usefully, settles it in a way nobody can argue with. Type your options, spin, and let the pointer decide.

How it works

Setting up the wheel

The text box holds your options, one per line. Blank lines are ignored, so you can leave gaps while you think. After editing the list, press Apply items to redraw the wheel with your new options — the wheel does not update as you type, which stops it flickering mid-edit.

Every option gets an equal slice. Five options means five equal wedges at a 20% chance each. If you want one choice weighted more heavily, list it more than once: writing "Pizza" twice among six lines gives it two slices out of six.

Spinning

Press Spin. The wheel accelerates, slows over roughly four to five seconds, and the winner is read off the pointer at the 3 o'clock position on the right-hand edge. The result appears underneath the wheel.

The spin length and the number of turns vary slightly each time, so the animation does not look identical on repeat spins. The outcome is decided by where the wheel stops, not chosen in advance.

Practical notes

Long names are shortened on the wheel face to keep the labels readable, but the full text is shown in the result line.
Very long lists make the slices thin and hard to read. Around a dozen options is the comfortable ceiling; beyond that a random number generator or the ladder game may suit better.
Everything runs in your browser. The list is not sent anywhere and is not saved between visits, so keep a copy elsewhere if you want to reuse it.

Terms explained

Apply items: Reads the text box and redraws the wheel. Press this after adding or removing options.
Spin: Starts the wheel turning. It cannot be pressed again until the current spin finishes.
Segment: One wedge of the wheel. Each line of your list becomes one segment of equal size.
Pointer: The fixed marker at the right edge of the wheel. Whichever segment sits there when the wheel stops is the winner.

Frequently asked questions

How do I make one option more likely to win?

List it more than once. Each line becomes one equal slice, so an option written twice in a list of six lines has a two-in-six chance instead of one-in-six. There is no separate weight setting.

Why did nothing happen when I edited the list?

The wheel redraws only when you press Apply items. This keeps it from redrawing on every keystroke while you are still typing. Press Apply items, then Spin.

Are my items saved for next time?

No. The list lives only in the page while it is open and is never sent to a server. Reloading or closing the tab clears it, so paste in a saved copy if you use the same options regularly.

How many options can I add?

There is no hard limit, but slices get narrow and the labels get hard to read past roughly a dozen items. For long lists, a random number generator or the ladder game is easier to read.

Is the result genuinely random or fixed in advance?

The wheel spins a randomised number of turns for a randomised duration, and the winner is read from wherever the pointer lands. Nothing is chosen ahead of the animation.