The first thing you should know before you learn anything about the bets you
can make, is when and how you can make those bets. Each roulette table moves in
sessions, each session is associated with a spin of the wheel and that spin's
result. At this point the
dealer will say 'place your bets' and everyone at the table will start throwing
chips down like crazy. Each player plays with their own color chips. There aren't many specific things that can be
considered roulette rules at the table, but here's one you shouldn't forget. After the ball has started spinning, the dealer will wave his hands across the
table and say 'no more bets'. Just sit back and let the ball fall where
it may. On inside bets, the total of all
of your bets must add up to at least the table minimum. There
are the different types of outside bets. Columns - at one end of the set of 38 numbers are
boxes with the words '2 to 1' written in them.
Roulette is the game where you guess where the little marble is going to drop
on the spinning wheel. For most bets it's fairly obvious - you can't miss the
Red diamond for Red bets, and things like Even, 1-18, and 1st 12 are written out
in plain English. When the ball is getting
ready to drop, the dealer will wave his hand over the table, which means "No
more bets". New players often have to be
told this repeatedly the first time they play because they kept forgetting and
because they're excited about collecting their winnings. There's no advantage to
limiting yourself to inside or outside. Inside bets can
usually be as small a you like, as long as the total of all your inside bets is
the table minimum. In this way, Roulette is more like slots - one single bet can
win a lot. Here's another example: Since there are 38 slots on the wheel,
we expect any given number to hit 1 out of 38 spins on average. There have been 152 spins (coincidentally,
4 x 38), and so we expect that each number should have come up 4 times on
average. The
chances of #27 coming up on a given spin are the same, whether it just come up
on the last spin or not - 1 in 38. On an American wheel,
there are 38 spots - numbers 1-36, plus 0 and 00. if you win, the
casino doesn't pay you 37 to 1, they pay you less - 35 to 1. The European
wheel has a lower house edge (2.63%) because it has only 37 slots instead of 38
(no 00) Atlantic City has a special rule which
reduces the house edge to 2.7% on even money bets (Red/Black, Odd/Even,
1-18/19-36): If 0 or 00 comes up on on even money bet, you lose only half your
bet. European games have an option called en prison which reduces the house edge
to 1.35%, but it's generally not available in the U.S., even in casinos that use
the European wheel. You don't get paid for the win, though, but it's better than losing
it outright. In effect, this variation has the ability to turn a loss into a tie.