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) At this point the
dealer will say 'place your bets' and everyone at the table will start throwing
chips down like crazy. Each player plays with their own color chips. 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. 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. 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. Making a bet is easy - you just place your chip(s) on the number(s), color, or
sets you want to bet on. 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. 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. For outside bets, any bet you make has to be 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) In this way, Roulette is more like slots - one single bet can
win a lot. There's an old saying,
"The wheel has no memory. Now let's say
you've been playing Roulette for a few hours, betting on Red every time, and
you've been keeping track of what numbers have hit. There have been 152 spins (coincidentally,
4 x 38), and so we expect that each number should have come up 4 times on
average. 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) 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.