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. A session ends when the ball lands where it may, and the dealers clear the board of losing bets (and pay winning ones of course) Each player plays with their own color chips. You trade in your checks (which most people think of as regular casino chips, but they're actually called checks) for roulette chips when a new session starts, and the dealer assigns you a number and denomination. When the new session starts you can put your chips down where you want to bet, and you don't really have to be in a hurry. Just sit back and let the ball fall where it may. Fiver number bet - there is only one five number bet available. Red or Black - you can choose to bet on the outcome either being a red number, or a black number. Odd or Even - similar to the red black bet, this even money bet is based on whether the resulting number will be odd or even. Low or High - this bet lets you predict whether you think the next number to come up will be part of the range from 1 to 18, or part of the range from 19 to 36.

Roulette would be a great game were it not for the high house edge - usually 5.26%, sometimes as low as 2.63%, which is still higher than blackjack, craps, or baccarat. You should always calculate your expected loss and how long you can play on a given bankroll before playing any game, but with roulette it's especially important. Here are the different bets you can make. The house edge is the same whether you make one bet per spin or several. If you're asked Inside or Outside, always answer "Both", even if you only intend to bet one or the other. Roulette chips can in fact be any denomination - $1, $5, $25, etc. When you buy in, tell the dealer what denomination you want. For outside bets, any bet you make has to be the table minimum. Remember that you can bet inside or outside if you like; there's no requirement to bet both on a given spin. Here's a handy way to remember the payouts when you're betting on a set of numbers: Take 36 divided by the quantity of numbers you're betting on, and subtract 1. It's important to understand that the outcome of the roulette wheel is truly random. You can certainly switch to another number if you want, but that won't improve or worsen your chances. It's more important to know what the house edge is, than how to calculate it, but here's a quick analysis in case you're interested. The European wheel has a lower house edge (2.63%) because it has only 37 slots instead of 38 (no 00) The last time we checked, Single 0 Roulette was available at the Stratosphere and the Monte Carlo on the Vegas Strip. If you win the second spin, your bet is "released from prison" and you get it back. In effect, this variation has the ability to turn a loss into a tie.