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. At this point the
dealer will say 'place your bets' and everyone at the table will start throwing
chips down like crazy. If you haven't read up on the rest of the site I'll
quickly go over the different colors of chips and how they relate to the rest of
the roulette rules. The
inside bets are made up of specific numbers or combinations of numbers within
the number layout, or along the border of it. Straight-up bet - this
is the classic roulette bet. Choose any one of the 38 numbers and put your
chips down on that number for the chance to win back at 35 to 1. 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. There are no winning outside bets for 0 or 00 results. There
are the different types of outside bets. 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. Dozens - a bet very similar to
the columns bet, dozens lets you place a bet on either the first dozen numbers
(1-12), the second dozen (13-24), or the third dozen (25-36)
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. 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. 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? Roulette chips can in fact be any denomination - $1, $5,
$25, etc. Inside bets can
usually be as small a you like, as long as the total of all your inside bets is
the table minimum. It most other games a bet usually wins only even money, but
Roulette gives you the chance to win 35 times your bet (a winning bet placed on
a single number) 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! It's important to
understand that the outcome of the roulette wheel is truly random. There's an old saying,
"The wheel has no memory. " That means it doesn't know what it spun
before, and even if it did, the wheel can't select what number comes up out of
its own volition. 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. if you win, the
casino doesn't pay you 37 to 1, they pay you less - 35 to 1. The
last time we checked, Single 0 Roulette was available at the Stratosphere and
the Monte Carlo on the Vegas Strip. 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.