Arabic Roulette Table
The Arabic Roulette Table, an almost 6.5-metre-long roulette table carved entirely from marble, is an original redesign of the conventional roulette table. From scratch, the typical roulette table is reimagined in a calm, sacred, yet hyper-grandiose visual and material language reflective of the Gulf region, with its layout translated into Arabic and structured according to an Arabic design framework.
Formalised gambling is banned across the Gulf region. Yet the completion of this work coincided with the announcement of the first legal casino to open in the Gulf, the Al Marjan casino resort in Ras Al Khaimah in March 2027, marking a significant moment in the history of the Indigenous peoples of the Gulf and our era of modernisation.
The table is constructed according to the exact proportions and logic of a functioning roulette table, making it theoretically playable, with players able to place bets exactly as they would on a conventional roulette table. However, the functional wheel has been deliberately replaced with a carved marble Islamic geometric motif, rendering the table intentionally unplayable.
This table debuted in an abandoned neo-Islamic unfinished house just outside Doha, Qatar, in February 2026 as part of the exhibition : ASBAR / اصبر
Arabic Roulette Table, 2026
Marble
Arabic Roulette Table (Up Close), 2025
Within ASBAR, the work was displayed in a room transformed into a fictional establishment called OUD CASINO, where precious oud takes the place of casino chips. Rather than gambling with money, players wager oud itself, with each piece assigned a value according to its region of origin, weight, purity, and rarity.
During the exhibition, a croupier stood beside the table wearing a bespoke uniform printed with photographs of sacred oud sourced from different regions, each piece individually selected, documented, and reproduced onto the fabric.
Film fragment from the ASBAR / اصبر exhibition