Roullete – The Basics of Betting at Roulette

Roullete is a game of chance, where players wager on what number or grouping of numbers will come up next by placing chips on the table before the croupier throws a ball into a spinning roulette wheel. Each bet type has different odds and payouts. Some bets pay even money and others offer a higher house edge. Choosing a bet type that suits you and understanding the odds of each one is essential to your success at Roulette.

The game is played on a table marked off with one or two zeros and several other sections affording the players a variety of betting opportunities. In the center is a revolving, dishlike device called a roulettewheel into which a small ball is spun and finally comes to rest in one of the 37 or 38 compartments that constitute the wheel. The compartments are alternately colored red and black and numbered, except for the single green division on European wheels that is labelled 0 and the double-green compartment on American roulette tables that is labelled 00.

Before the wheel is spun a player places bets by laying them on the table in precise positions. Each bet is a particular combination of numbers, colors, odds and probabilities. Generally speaking, bets on six or less numbers are known as Inside bets while bets on 13 or more numbers are called Outside bets.

In addition to the above mentioned bet types, a player may place bets on first, second and third dozen, low red and high black, odd-even, and a series of special bets that combine multiple bets into a single proposition. Many (possibly millions) of systems for playing and supposedly winning Roulette have been developed, but all are based on probability theory and have no measurable advantage over random chance.