Rules of Roulette

Roulette is widely recognized as one of the most popular and glamorous casino games. The game is widely played across the world in land-based and online casinos and has fairly simple rules. That said the game has an impressive level of depth which can serve well to the more experienced bettors.

At The Roulette Player, we help you improve your game in every aspect to allow you to monetize your skills in roulette. Here we will teach you the basic rules of roulette that can help in developing a comprehensive understanding of the game!

The Very Basics

Before you make your way to a roulette table, you should familiarize yourself with the equipment first. Roulette is a French word for ‘little wheel’ where there are 36 numbers with a 9. However, in American Roulette, there can be 00. The croupier will roll the white ball in the spinning wheel where it will land on a number. Hence, bets that are placed have to correlate with the slots on which the ball lands in order to win. There are a few other options on the table, including 1st 12, 2nd 12, 3rd 12, 1 – 18, 19 – 36, Odd, Even, Red, and Black.

Inside and Outside Bets

Another thing in roulette is inside bets, where you will predict the number where the ball will land. In order to do that you will have to make a certain range of bets. Inside bets generally offer greater payouts. For instance, you can place bets like:

• "Straight up" bet on 1 number pays 35 to 1
• Split bet on 2 numbers pays 17 to 1
• "Street" bet on 3 numbers pays 11 to 1
• Corner bet on 4 numbers pays 8 to 1
• Six line bet on 6 numbers pays 5 to 1
• In American roulette there is the Five-number bet which covers "0, 00, 1, 2, and 3" and pays 6:1, while the Row 00 bet covers 0 and 00 and pays 17:1.

Outside bets, on the other hand, are placed on the outside of the number map and don’t have any specific numbers. For instance:

• Color bet on red or black pays 1 to 1.
• Even or odd bet pays 1 to 1.
• Column bet on 12 numbers pays 2 to 1
• Dozen bet pays 2 to 1
• High or low bet pays 1 to 1.

Odds

On every roulette table, the house will maintain its edge regardless. Hence, bets are that placed that can be true can only be placed if 34 numbers are there on the wheel. This means the house advantage is on 0, and 00 in American Roulette. The 00 slot in American Roulette further increases the house advantage because on a table with 1 zero, the casino advantage is 2.7%, whereas it is 5.26% in American tables. That said some French tables do entertain rules that improve the player advantage.

For instance, the ‘En Prison' rule applies to the outside bets and the zero slots. This allows you to cut your losses by half. However, you won’t be allowed to leave the table until the next pin. So if you happen to lose, you can collect half of the betting amount when playing the En Prison, or leave half of your betting amount on the table for the next spin. Now that you know the basics, it’s time you start playing some free roulette to get a good feel of the game!