Roulette is a popular casino table game, in which a small ball is thrown into a revolving wheel that has up to 38 numbered pockets. These are mainly coloured red and black but all wheels feature at least one green slot. The aim of the game is to bet on which number the ball will come to a full stop on. Before the wheel starts spinning, players place their bets, trying to predict where the little ball will come to rest.
There are several different types of bets that can be made, the most common ones are described further down, and there are several variants of the game, including French Roulette, American Roulette and European Roulette, the latter is played most outside of the US and it’s this version that we will be talking about in this casino guide.
A European Roulette wheel has 37 numbers (0-36) and a game of Roulette starts when you place your bet on any single number, a combination of numbers, red or black, odd or even, on numbers between 1 and 36 and the 0 (and 00 if playing the American Roulette version of the game). Upon joining the table, you’ll need to select a chip value by clicking on one of the chips on the game screen. You then place your bets on the table and once you’re done, you’ll need to spin the wheel and watch the little ball rolling in the opposite direction. The ball lands on a randomly selected number that wins the game.
For winning bets, the original wager is returned to your account, plus the payout you receive based on the amount staked and the game’s odds.
The European Roulette wheel features 37 pockets, including the red and black numbers from 1-36, and only a single green zero pocket. The clockwise sequence of numbers on the wheel looks like this:
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
Though the layout of the numbers on the Roulette wheel might seem random, it definitely isn't! Some trivia about the wheel and its numbers:
Before the little ball hits the wheel, you’ll have to place your bet on the Roulette table. The two main sections of the table on which the bets are placed are the ‘inside section’ and the ‘outside section’. The inside section offers bets on individual numbers that are close to one another on the table layout, or groups of up to six numbers.
The outside section contains pairs of bets for Red or Black, High or Low and Odd or Even. (Note: Each section offers many different ways to bet, we’ve listed the most common ones in the ‘Types of bets’ paragraph a bit further below).
In addition to the two main sections of the table, you’ll find an oval-shaped betting zone that resembles a racing circuit, hence its name, the ‘Roulette racetrack’. It’s usually located underneath or to the side of the standard European Roulette table on many Roulette games. This part of the table reflects the Roulette wheel and the order in which the numbers are displayed, rather than the numerical order of the main betting layout.
Traditionally, in land-based casinos, these bets were referred to as ‘Call bets’ or ‘Announced bets’ because they would get ‘called out’ to the dealer to save the player from having to place multiple chips on individual numbers they wanted to bet on. In online Roulette, that’s what the racetrack is used for. It allows you to easily place bets on groups of numbers on the wheel by placing a betting chip in the relevant section(s) of the racetrack.
In Roulette there are many kinds of bets to choose from. Here, we’ve listed the most common types of bets that you can place on a Roulette table.
Inside bets are all bets placed on the part of the table known as the ‘inside section’ or ‘the layout’ (read: the numbers portion of the betting table). They’re placed directly on the numbers 0 to 36 (and also 00 if playing American Roulette). There are 5 types of inside bets: Straight, Split, Street or Three Line, Corner and Six Line. The Roulette software automatically recognizes that inside bets are cumulative, so bets can be placed within the inside section of the table until the minimum is reached. If it's not reached, bets under the minimum will be removed when the wheel is spun (after the betting timer expires).
On the ‘outside section’ of the table, you can place wagers on a variety of matching pairs of bets, each covering 18 numbers. From high or low numbers, odd or even, and red or black, there are a number of options available. An ‘outside bet’ is a wager placed around the field of numbers and it can be any of the following 5 types: Column, Dozen, High/Low, Red/Black and Odd/Even. Outside bets are usually less risky than inside bets and so have a lower payout. Each outside bet must be at least the amount of the table minimum. Inside and outside bets function independently from each other when it comes to the table minimum.
Most online Roulette games will offer a Betting Pattern feature which allows players to save their favourite bets or combination of different types of bets for easier placement in future rounds and logins. Usually up to 5 betting patterns can be saved and edited. The steps to save a betting pattern depend on the software of the Roulette game, but it will usually look somewhere along the lines of the following steps:
When playing Roulette, you can only make use of the Autoplay function if you’re using the aforementioned predefined betting pattern(s).
Familiarising yourself with the type of Roulette that you’re playing, with the layout of the wheel as well as the table could possibly help you get a better grasp on the game. If you study the different odds and probabilities on top of that, you’ll know everything you need to start giving it a try, but remember Roulette is a game of chance.