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. Most roulette sessions move at a fairly slow pace, to accommodate the number of
people betting, and the variety on which they can bet. If you have a player you
likes to put down twenty different bets each time they play, the sessions are
going to move a little slower. The
inside bets are made up of specific numbers or combinations of numbers within
the number layout, or along the border of it. The outside bets on a roulette board are
simply the bets that reside 'outside' of the main playing area of 38 numbers. There are no winning outside bets for 0 or 00 results. There
are the different types of outside bets. 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. Columns - at one end of the set of 38 numbers are
boxes with the words '2 to 1' written in them.
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. Making a bet is easy - you just place your chip(s) on the number(s), color, or
sets you want to bet on. You don't have to make just one kind of bet for
each spin, you can make several, and you win if the ball lands on any of your
numbers. In most games players can continue
making bets even while the ball is still spinning. Don't reach for your winnings until the dealer
removes the marker, or the dealer will scold you. 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'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. Roulette games have minimum bets, which will be posted on a
placard at the table. Inside bets can
usually be as small a you like, as long as the total of all your inside bets is
the table minimum. If Black has
come up for the last 10 spins in a row, the next spin is not more likely to be
Red. You can certainly switch to
another number if you want, but that won't improve or worsen your chances. The European
wheel has a lower house edge (2.63%) because it has only 37 slots instead of 38
(no 00) 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.