The Basics of Roulette
Roulette is one of the most popular casino games worldwide. It was first introduced in the late 1700s in Paris and has since spread across the globe. Nowadays, you can hardly find any casino that does not have at least one roulette table. While the game may seem simple, it’s actually a complex and fun game that can be played with different variations. There are three main types of roulette – American, European, and French. Each has subtle differences that every player should know about.
A typical roulette wheel consists of a solid, convex wooden disk with thirty-six numbered compartments (called “canoes” by croupiers) ranging from red to black, plus a single green zero and a double-zero pocket on American wheels. A croupier, who manages the game, spins the wheel and drops a ball into one of the pockets. When the ball stops in one of the numbers, the croupier announces that number, collects all losing bets and pays out winning bets. The croupier then places a marker on the winning number and begins the next round.
When playing roulette, you are given special colored chips to differentiate yourself from other players and the dealer. This helps to avoid confusion and allows the dealers to give each player the correct amount of money back after a win. Once you’ve placed all of your chips on the table, you must tell the dealer how much each is worth. The dealer will then indicate this on the wheel of chips and parcel them out to you.
There are a multitude of roulette bets, but most players stick to outside bets, which have the lowest house edge. These bets include a straight bet on a single number, which pays out 35 to 1; an even money bet on two adjacent numbers, such as red and black; or a column bet that covers four numbers. There are also other specialty bets such as the tiers, which pay out 12 to 1.
For beginners, we recommend starting with the European version of the game. The game’s odds are a lot better than its American counterpart and it offers a minuscule house edge of 1.35%.