Roulette is one of the oldest and the most famous game played in any of the casinos of the world. In playing the Roulette game, your objective is to pick the winning number that will appear on the Roulette wheel. Other than the individual numbers, you can also bet on the combination of numbers or choose the color, odd or even. For many newbie, it is not as easy as it seems. Hence, let go back to the basic to learn how to play Roulette and understand what your chances to win in Roulette game are.
Two Types of Wheels
If you have been to casino before or visited an online casino, you may notice that there are actually two types of Roulette wheels, one has 37 slots, numbered from 0 to 36 and another type has 38 numbers, range from 0 to 36 with added extra number "00".
The 37 slot's wheel is the original wheel since the game invented; the 37 slot's wheel is known as "European Wheel". The house edge / casino advantage for this 37 slot's wheel is 2.63%. The 38 slot's wheel is known as "American Wheel", it has an added double zero ("00") which has increase the house edge from 2.63% to 5.26%. In other word, you chances to win in "American Wheel" are less than the "European Wheel.
Roulette Table Layout
Roulette layouts have two betting areas: the inside betting area and outside betting area. The inside betting area contains the individual numbers on the layout; the outside betting area has boxes for the columns, red/black and odd/even and different groups of numbers.
The individual numbers at the inside betting area are arranged in 3 columns times 12 rows and the zero and double zero (if it is American Wheel) are arrange at the top of the columns. There are 18 numbers colored with "Black"/"Yellow" and the other 18 numbers are colored with "Red"; you can making the betting based on these two colors at the outside betting area. Beside the colors, there are three other types of betting at outside betting area: 1-18 (small), 19-36 (big); Old or Even; column bets: 1 to 12, 13 to 24, and 25 to 36.
Buying In
In order to avoid disputes, each player will receives a different color chip and these color chips can only be used for that table only; you much cash them in once you are done playing to exchange these chip with the cash chips where you can cash them at the cashier cage later.
You can make several types of betting at inside betting area; you can bet a number straight up or straddle the line between numbers to select a combination of numbers. The payouts for each type of betting are as follow:
a. Single Number : Pays 35 to 1
b. Split bet between two numbers: Pays 17 to 1
c. Quad bet between 4 numbers (place your chip at the center of 4 adjacent numbers): Pays 8 to 1.
d. Line bet / street bet (you bet on 1 row with 3 numbers): Pays 11 to 1.
e. Double street bet (you bet on 2 rows with 6 numbers): Pays 5 to 1.
At outside betting area, the payouts for any winning are as follow:
a. Even/odd, big/small and color black/red are all pay 1 to 1.
b. Column bets (1 to 12, 13 t o24, 25 to 36) are paying 2 to 1.
After the roulette ball drop into the wheel's slot, the dealer will mark the winning number with a marker. He/she will pick up all the losing chips first before paying out the winning chips. You are not allowed to place your bet until the dealer removes the marker.
In summary
This article is giving you some basics on how to play the famous Roulette casino game. Roulette has a high house edge and you cannot overcome this edge in the long run. But if you put some strategies in place, you can increase you chance to win in this game. I will discuss a few roulette strategies in my next few articles. Good luck!