It is one of the simplest casino games to learn but the hardest to win. The only thing in your hand is to keep the house edge to the minimum as casinos have different rules which are pointed towards making the house edge high. A very important thing is if you have a choice always play on European roulette and not on the American wheel as with the double zero there, the house has got more odds in its favor. By playing on a European table, you can reduce the house edge considerably. One rule is En prison which is applicable only for even-money outside bets. If the ball lands on 0, the player does not loose the bet immediately. The bet remains on the board and ‘in prison’. After the next spin, with a win, the money is returned to the player but with the loss, money is taken away. In case of a 0 again, the bet remains in prison. Then there is another rule called Surrender. If ball parks itself on 0 or 00, rather than the whole bet the player looses only half the bet. So if the player can find a table with this rule, he can have more odds in his favor. The ‘La Partage’ rule described above can also reduce the house edge and thus increase the chances of you not loosing money. Also remember the bets which have the highest payoffs are the ones where house edge is biggest.
One can think of strategies to increase the chances of winning in this game but in actuality there can not be a strategy to win as it is a game of luck and chance.. Some popular betting systems in roulette have been the Martingale system and d’Alembert system. These systems can not change you from a loosing player to a winner. In Martingale system the idea is when you win you keep the amount but in case of a loss, you double the size of your previous bet, so that when you win, you can recover the previous loss. This betting system was used in the 18th century France but it is no longer popular in roulette these days. It can work for people who have unlimited money and also since these days casinos have set some betting limits you can not go by this rule. Another system was d’Alembert system which was based on the theory that one can not win again after a win and same ways can not loose again after a loss. Again it is a very flawed idea as the wheel has no memory and each spin carries the same odds as the previous one. There are other systems also like Labouchere system, cancellation systems; but all these systems can not guarantee a win. There are mechanical strategies too which involve clocking the wheel. Since the wheel is man made there can be imperfections and thus it says that few numbers have better odds than others of appearing more often.
You can place different roulette bets and all have different payouts and odds. You can wager on one number, two or more numbers, odd or even number, color of the pockets. Then there are inside bets and outside bets. Inside bets are placed on the inner part of the table. Straight bet is betting on a single number. The odds against this bet are very low infact, lowest and the payout is 35 to 1, supposing you are playing on the European table.
The two number bet is placed on two adjacent number with the payout of 17 to 1. Passé is betting on last 18 numbers. Then there is betting on three numbers which are neighboring numbers. A player wins if the ball lands on any one of those numbers. The payoff here is 11 to 1. There are four numbers and five numbers bet also which have payouts of 8 to 1 and 6 to 1 respectively. The outside bets in simple terms are placed not on the numbers but outside the number grids. There is Red bet which is betting on the red pockets. Payoff here is 1 to 1. Similarly the black bet is on black pockets and payouts are same as the red one. Even or odd bets are placed odd or even numbers and the payoffs are 1 to 1. There are high and low roulette bets. High bet is on the number which is in the range of 19 to 36 and low bet is on the number in the range of 1 -18. The payoff is also 1 to 1. There can be top, middle and bottom column best depending on the columns with each column containing twelve numbers. The dozen bet is on the group of twelve numbers either 1-12, 13-24 or 25 -36. In case of a win, the payoff here is 2 to 1.
Roulette table has a roulette wheel and layout. The layout is the number of grids on the table where betting takes place. The layouts are different in French and American wheel. The American style table has the wheel at one end and in French or European style table the wheel is in the centre. The French wheels have single zeros and American wheels have both single as well as double zeros. So an American wheel has 38 pockets in all and the French wheel has 37 pockets. With two zeros, house has got more advantage in the American system than the French wheel. Another distinguishing feature is the color. The colors of all numbered pockets in a French wheel are white where as in American wheels except 0 and 00 all the numbered pockets are red and black in color. The 0 pocket has green color. In American roulette wheel there is another green pocket which has double zero ‘00’. The sequence of the numbers in both the wheels is also different. The odds for players are much favorable in French Roulette wheel than its American counterpart. If the wheel stops at zero, the players loose only 50 % of the money wagered in the French system. This rule is known as the La Partage rule. As the house advantage is lesser in French wheel, for players this is a better wheel to play on.
Roulette in French means ‘small wheel’. It is a gambling game played in casinos. In this game, the players may place bets on numbers, range of numbers, odd numbers, even numbers or colors. A roulette wheel has three major parts; ball track in which is the outer track of the wheel where ball spins; bottom track is the innermost part of the wheel which remains stationary and the biased wheel which has the numbers. The Croupier, French word for dealer, spins the wheel in one direction and the ball in opposite direction in a circular track which is running around the wheel. When the ball looses its momentum, it falls on one of the colored and numbered pockets of the wheel. This is the winning number of color. The roulette wheel pockets are numbered from 1 to 36 and every alternate pocket is red and black in color. The green pocket has a number 0. There is a particular sequence to the numbers which is different in both ‘single zero wheel’ and ‘double zero wheel’. Roulette in its present form has been in use in France since the late 18th century. In Germany, in 1843, two Frenchmen had introduced single zero style roulette wheel as all other casinos were offering double zero styled traditional wheels. With Germany abolishing gambling in 1860’s, these Frenchmen moved to Monte Carlo, most famous gambling destination in Europe then. They introduced the single zero wheel there and it became popular in Europe after that. But in US, double zero wheels is still very popular. Earlier, in some American roulette wheels, there was a single zero, a double zero, numbers from 1 to 28 and an American eagle. Roulette is also called ‘king of Casino games’ because of the glamour attached to it.