How To Play Roulette

The American roulette wheel is made up of 38 compartments equally colored as red and black and numbered from 1 to 36, and with a zero and a double-zero that are colored green. The European version of roulette is made up of 37 compartments as there is only a single zero on the wheel. The roulette table is laid out presenting all of the numbers on offer on the board, all arranged to allow for the best variety of bets.

To bet on roulette, the player will place their chips on the numbers of the wheel (inside bets) betting that the ball will land on those numbers, or the player can place their chip on one of the other areas such as “Odd/Even” or “Red/Black” (known as outside bets) to be on a combination of numbers or for other combinations.

A straight-up bet on one number will pay the player odds of 35-1. These odds seem great, but the house always has the advantage because there are 37 numbers on the wheel, meaning that if all things were even, the odds that should be paid out would be 37-1. This gives the house an advantage of 5.26% on American roulette. The house advantage for European roulette is almost half this due to the wheel only having one zero, therefore less numbers that can spun.

There are various types of bets available to the roulette player. These are:

• Straight-up – betting on a single number from 1 to 36, zero or double zero with odds of 35-1.
• Split – betting on two numbers next to each other on the game board with odds of 17-1.
• Three-Way – Betting on zero, double zero and 2 (on American roulette only) or on a row of three numbers, such as 1, 2 and 3 with odds of 11-1.
• Four-Way – betting on four numbers on the roulette table by placing your chip in the corner of the numbers covering all four squares with odds of 8-1
• Five-Way – betting on zero, double-zero, 1, 2 and 3 (American roulette only). This bet is the only one that gives the house an advantage of 8% so it is not recommended that you ever place this bet unless you really feel sure.
• Six-Way – betting on two rows of numbers such as 1 to 6 or 10 to 15 with odds of 5-1.
• Dozen – betting on a third of the numbers, 1 – 12, 13 – 24 and 25 – 36. These bets offer odds of 3-1.
• Column – betting on a column of 12 numbers. Very much like a Dozen bet, but are found on the end of the table layout and pay the same odds of 3-1.
• Odd/Even – bets on if the number will be even or odd paying 2-1.
• High/Low – betting on if the number will be low (1 – 18) or high (19 – 36) with odds of 2-1.
• Red/Black – bets on the number being red or black with odds of 2-1.

When a round or roulette starts, the players can place their bets on the roulette table. One thing to be sure of is that the dealer has finished paying out all of the bets from the previous game before you try and place a bet on the next game. The dealer will usually call “no more bets” and wave their hands over the table to signal the close of betting for the next game. This is usually done just before the ball drops into the wheel. It’s best to get your bets on early though, as missing out on a winning number because you waited to long is one of the most heart-breaking things that can happen in this game.

In a real-life casino, the winning bets are left on the table and the loosing bets are cleared away. The dealer then pays out the winning bets and calls that betting is allowed, then the winning players can take their winnings and place their bets for the next round.