Roulette Rules – The Basics

From all gambling games, Roulette is one of the oldest casino games. Roulette is as popular online as it is in real-world casinos. This classic gaming table is dominated by the distinctive Roulette wheel, which is used to randomly select a number from 0 to 36, with the numbers 1-36 also being allocated one of two colors, red or black.

Betting in Roulette game precedes a spin of the wheel, with the aim of correctly predicting which number and / or colors a ball introduced to the wheel will ultimately land on. Roulette offers a number of betting combinations with different odds according to risk.

There are three common variations of Roulette found at online casinos; American, European and French. We’ll cover the classic rules of European Roulette first then explain the differences of the American and French variations.

The key step for the player of Roulette is to place bets using various denomination chips on the game table. Players can make a variety of bets on the table, allocating different chips to individual numbers or predetermined combinations of numbers. Bets can be modified at any time up until the Roulette wheel is spun. As mentioned above, different types of bet attract different odds according to the probability of it covering the winning number /color selected by the wheel.

The main bets are:

NAME	DESCRIPTION OF BET	ODDS
Straight Bets	A bet on a single number	35 to 1
Split Bets	A bet on two adjacent numbers	17 to 1
Street Bets	A bet on any 3 numbers on a horizontal line	11 to 1
Square Bets	A bet on a block of 4 numbers	8 to 1
Line Bets	A bet on six numbers, comprising two adjacent rows	5 to 1
Column Bets	A bet on one of 3 vertical columns	2 to 1
Dozen Bets	A bet on 12 numbers, being high, middle or low	2 to 1
High or Low Bet	A bet on either the high or low 18 numbers	1 to 1
Even Bets	Any bet on even/odd, red/black and low/ high	1 to 1

There are also Neighbour (or ‘Voisin’) bets that are placed on the oval-shaped area of the table marked with the same number sequence as appears on the Roulette wheel (‘the Racetrack’). The racetrack allows players to quickly place a group of bets on single numbers that follow (hence ‘neighbour’) each other on the wheel.

The all- important zero rule of European Roulette is that, if this is where the ball comes to rest on the spin, all wagers on bets with evens odds (i.e. High or Low and Evens Bets) are lost.

The principle difference from European Roulette is the operation of the zero rule in French Roulette. Here the players of evens bets only lose half their wager on the outcome of a ‘0’ on the wheel. This is known as ‘La Partage’.

The major differences to the American Roulette table that affect play are the addition of a ‘double zero’ to the numbers on the wheel and the absence of the Racetrack on the baize which makes playing Neighbour bets a little more involved.

Having a ‘0’ and ‘00’ on the wheel means the odds are slightly less favourable to players than European Roulette, however the usual zero / double zero rule is like French Roulette in that players of evens bets only lose half their wager on this outcome.

The other difference that arises from having a ‘00’ on the wheel is that American Roulette players can place a Five Bet – this bet can be made in only one place on the table and covers five numbers: ‘0’, ‘00’, ‘1’, ‘2’ and ‘3’ with odds of 6 to 1.

Generally, many best online casinos offers all the variations of Roulette so always check game rules at a specific casino to see that it offers what you want. The mechanics of playing Roulette is well suited to online gambling gaming, and all the casinos we recommend use independently certified random number generators to drive their virtual Roulette wheels so you can be confident that these games are not biased against the player.

Playing Roulette online is incredibly simple but playing a UK casino’s free play version of the game (if one is available) is always a useful starting point if you’re new to the software being used, getting you used to the player controls ahead of making some ‘real money’ bets.