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) All of your chips of the same color are worth the same amount. 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. After the ball has started spinning, the dealer will wave his hands across the table and say 'no more bets'. On inside bets, the total of all of your bets must add up to at least the table minimum. Corner bet - lets you bet on four adjoining numbers. Placing your chips at the point where four numbers meet will indicate you want a corner bet. The outside bets on a roulette board are simply the bets that reside 'outside' of the main playing area of 38 numbers. This is different than inside bets, where the total of all of your inside bets must meet the table minimum. Red or Black - you can choose to bet on the outcome either being a red number, or a black number.

We've added blue circled letters to the diagram to point out how to make the not-so-obvious bets (the sets of 2-6 numbers) When the ball is getting ready to drop, the dealer will wave his hand over the table, which means "No more bets". That way if two players bet on the same number (or set of numbers), then the dealer knows who to pay, and arguments can't arise over who bet what. Sometimes the dealer will ask you "Inside or Outside? That's because if you're betting only inside and someone else is betting only outside, he can give you both the same color chips and there won't be any confusion. That way, you're not locked in and you always have the ability to change your mind. Remember that you can bet inside or outside if you like; there's no requirement to bet both on a given spin. In this way, Roulette is more like slots - one single bet can win a lot. 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. All the bets on the layout carry the same house edge, with the exception of 5-number Line Bet (0, 00, 1, 2, 3), which carries a whopping 7.29% edge! The wheel has no memory. Your odds of winning a one-number bet are 37 to 1 (37 ways to lose, 1 way to win) if you win, the casino doesn't pay you 37 to 1, they pay you less - 35 to 1. The difference between the true odds and what they actually pay you is 2/38, or 5.26%. If you play Roulette, the most important thing is to find a casino that offers the European wheel (which is called "Single 0" Roulette) 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.