How to Play Roulette

An Introduction to Roulette

Roulette is a game of chance that is extremely popular in casinos around the world. The game has been around from a very long time, but the game in its current avatar came into being in Paris in 1765. Today, there are two basic types of Roulette – American and European – with the difference between the two being the presence of an additional zero number, the double zero, in the American version of the game.

Basics about How to Play Roulette – The Layout

You can play roulette either at a traditional land-based casino or at an online casino. When it comes to discussing how to play the game of roulette, there are a number of associated things we need to look at first – how the game layout looks like,

The game of roulette consists of a table and a wheel, basically. The wheel has 37 or 38 slots, depending on whether it is European or American roulette, numbered starting from 0. The 38 slots are in the American version because of the presence of the additional double-zero entity. The wheel consists of a bowl that is usually 32 inches wide and a wheel head, which forms the center part of the wheel, and also rotates.

The table also has the same number of boxes as the slots in the wheel. In the American game there are 38 boxes, numbered 0 through 37, and in the European game there are 37 squares, numbered 0 through 36. The boxes are of two colors, usually red and black, in an alternating pattern. These boxes are laid out in three columns of 12 each. At the head of the columns are the zero numbers and at the base of the columns are three boxes labeled 2-1.

There are another set of boxes alongside the columns. The first row in this area has three boxes marked 1st 12, 2nd 12, and 3rd 12. Alongside this row is another row with six boxes, labeled 1 to 18, EVEN, All red, All black, ODD, and 19 to 36. These boxes represent the areas where you can place your outside bets. There are also the inside bets, which you can place in the area of the 36 boxes.

How to Play Roulette – Basic Play and Bets

Now that you know the layout, we can discuss how to play the game itself, and also state briefly the different bets associated with the game. The game involves the dealer spinning a ball along the rim of the bowl, causing the ball to spin round the bowl and finally coming to rest on one of the slots. As a player, you lay bets on where the ball would possibly stop.

You need to buy chips to sit in on a roulette game. In the online version the chips can be of any color as players are not present physically at the table and there are no chances of their chips getting mixed up. However, in a traditional casino, since there are chances of the chips of different players getting mixed, each player’s chips are of a specific color.

Placing Your Bets

There is a minimum and maximum bet for each table. You need to bet the same amount inside as well as outside (we will discuss more about inside and outside bets shortly). There are a number of options for you to bet on – the winning number, possible combinations of numbers, possible colors, and also whether the number is an odd or even number. Depending on what you choose to bet on, there are two major kinds of bets in this game – inside bets and outside bets.

Inside bets include the straight up bet, split bet, three number bet, corner/quad bet, five-number bet, and the six-number bet. Each of these bets is unique and has a corresponding house advantage. Outside bets include the columns bet, the dozens bet, low and high numbers bet, even-odd bet, and the red-black bet.