Roulette has been a casino mainstay for centuries, and the principle of the game is very easy to grasp. People who never have or never will gamble know how a Roulette wheel works, such is its reputation and prominence in the media.
Roulette can be played by any number of players against the house, by means of the rotating roulette wheel. The roulette wheel is the central and movable portion of a bowl, which is divided into alternate red and black compartments that are numbered from 0 to 36 with an additional double zero and green zero. Each player gets a colour chip on which they may place their bet, and which represents a betting unit. After placing the bets, the croupier spins the roulette wheel and throws an ivory ball against the direction of the wheel. As soon as the ball makes a definite landing in any one slot, the dealer announces the winning number, and resolves all the bets. If you win, the croupier offers you coloured chips, which you can then cash in.
In order to place a bet you must first exchange cash for coloured Roulette chips, which will all be worth the same amount e.g. £1. The dealer instructs all players to ‘place your bets’, and everyone puts their chips on whatever numbers they where they want to bet on. When the dealer announces ‘no more bets please’ the wheel is about to be spun and the ball dropped. It’s all very easy and entertaining but there are different kinds of bets that you can place in order to make it even more exciting!
Bets made on individual or adjacent numbers or small groups of numbers are referred to as ‘inside bets’ while the bets covering groups of 12 or 18 numbers (eg: red, odd etc) are known as ‘outside bets’.
Straight Up Bet: a bet on any single number, including zero, placed directly on the number.
Split Bet: a bet on two adjacent numbers, placed on the line between them. A split bet can also be put on 0, 1 and 2, or 0, 2 and 3.
Line Bet: a bet on six numbers (2 rows of 3 numbers), placed at the end of two rows on the line between them.
Corner Bet: a bet on a group of four numbers, placed at the corner where the 4 numbers touch.
Street Bet: a bet on three numbers in a row, placed on the line at the end of the row.
Colour Bet: a bet on either all of the red numbers or all of the black numbers, signified by the placing of the chip on either the red box or the black box.
Column Bet: a bet on an entire column, placed on a 2-1 box at the end of a column.
Dozen Bet: a bet on a group of 12 numbers, placed on either the 1st box of 12 numbers (1-12), 2nd box of 12 (13-24), or 3rd box of 12 numbers (25-36).
Low/High Number Bet: a bet on all low numbers or all high numbers, placed on the low box (1-18) or the high box (19-36).
Even/Odd Bet: a bet on all even numbers or all odd numbers, placed on the even box or the odd box.
There are different internet versions of Roulette, which have slightly adjusted rules:
European Roulette: uses a single-zero wheel that offers a reduced house edge of 2.7% on all bets.
French Roulette: Uses a single-zero wheel and offer the traditional European surrender rule which is where a players even-money bet (black, red, even, odd, 1-18, 19-36) becomes imprisoned should the ball land in zero. If the player wins on the next bet the imprisoned bet is returned without the profit.
Roulette Royale: A single-zero game that offers a £1 side bet, which wins if the same number is hit at least twice in a row. This is extremely exciting as if the number appears twice the player wins £15, hits three consecutive times, they get £200 and if it hits four times in a row the player receives £3000!
