Getting to know Roulette

The roulette wheel is a feature of every casino. The game has been exciting and delighting players since the 18th century and although the way we play roulette may have changed over the past 300 years the game has lost none of its magic. This is a brief guide for players new to roulette or for those who want to brush up on their knowledge of the game!

The Rules

The rules of roulette are quite straightforward. Players have 5 main betting options – betting on either a single or multiple individual numbers, whether the number will be odd or even number, the colours red or black, or if the number will be low (1-18) or high (19-36). To start the game the croupier spins the wheel in one direction before spinning the ball in the opposite direction around the outside track of the roulette wheel. The ball will eventually lose momentum and fall onto to wheel and land on a number, the croupier will then pay out to the lucky winners!

Roulette Wheel Layout

There are multiple variants of the roulette wheel but the most common versions are the American and French/European wheels. The American roulette wheel has 38 pockets on the wheel while the French wheel has one less at 37. The extra pocket is a second green zero pocket on the American wheel. The pockets on a roulette wheel are numbered from 0 to 36. Odd numbers in the ranges from 1 to 10 and 19 to 28 are red while the even numbers are black. Odd numbers in the ranges from 11 to 18 and 29 to 36 are black while the even numbers are red. There is a green pocket numbered 0 on both French and American roulette wheels with an additional green pocket numbered 00 only found on the American wheels.

The order of pocket numbers on an American roulette wheel in the clockwise direction is 0, 28, 9, 26, 30, 11, 7, 20, 32, 17, 5, 22, 34, 15, 3, 24, 36, 13, 1, 00, 27, 10, 25, 29, 12, 8, 19, 31, 18, 6, 21, 33, 16, 4, 23, 35, 14, 2.

The order of pocket numbers on a French roulette wheel in the clockwise direction is 0, 32, 15, 19, 4, 21, 2, 25, 17, 34, 6, 27, 13, 36, 11, 30, 8, 23, 10, 5, 24, 16, 33, 1, 20, 14, 31, 9, 22, 18, 29, 7, 28, 12, 35, 3, 26.

In a casino-setting, bets are placed on a cloth covered betting area known as the layout.

Betting

In roulette, bets can be either inside or outside bets. Outside bets have better odds at winning and payout lower amounts. These include bets on red or black, even or odd, range bets (a bet that the number will be in the chosen range 1 to 18 or 19 to 36), dozen bets (a bet that the number will be in the first: 1-12, second: 13-24 or third: 25-36 dozen), column bets (a bet that the number will be in the chosen vertical column of 12 numbers on the layout) and snake bets (a bet that covers the numbers 1, 5, 9, 12, 14, 16, 19, 23, 27, 30, 32, and 34 – named after the zigzag nature of the pattern the numbers trace on the layout).

Inside bets are bets with larger pay outs than outside bets but are also less likely to win. Inside bets include bets on a single number, Split bets (bets on two adjacent numbers), Street bets (bets on three consecutive numbers in a horizontal line), Corner bets (bets on four numbers that meet at a corner) and Double Street bets (bets on six consecutive numbers that form two horizontal lines).

Both virtual roulette and live roulette are available at most online casinos.

Check out our other article on Roulette for Beginners now!