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. 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. 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. 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. Split bet - you can place a single bet on two individual numbers if those numbers are beside each other on the table layout. This is different than inside bets, where the total of all of your inside bets must meet the table minimum. There are the different types of outside bets.

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. you will likely lose money faster the more bets you make, because you're betting more. In most games players can continue making bets even while the ball is still spinning. When the ball falls into a slot, the dealer will announce the number and the color, and place a marker on the layout where the winning number is. Don't reach for your winnings until the dealer removes the marker, or the dealer will scold you. 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. 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. If you're asked Inside or Outside, always answer "Both", even if you only intend to bet one or the other. There's no advantage to limiting yourself to inside or outside. Roulette games have minimum bets, which will be posted on a placard at the table. For outside bets, any bet you make has to be the table minimum. It's important to understand that the outcome of the roulette wheel is truly random. If Black has come up for the last 10 spins in a row, the next spin is not more likely to be Red. 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. Your odds of winning a one-number bet are 37 to 1 (37 ways to lose, 1 way to win) The difference between the true odds and what they actually pay you is 2/38, or 5.26%.