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. 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. 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. Most roulette sessions move at a fairly slow pace, to accommodate the number of
people betting, and the variety on which they can bet. After the ball has started spinning, the dealer will wave his hands across the
table and say 'no more bets'. Just sit back and let the ball fall where
it may. Now lets take a look at each of the individual bets you can make. Street bet - this is a bet not unlike a split.
It allows you to bet on three different numbers with the same bet. Fiver number bet - there
is only one five number bet available. There
are the different types of outside bets.
now, let's see how to play roulette. 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. When the ball is getting
ready to drop, the dealer will wave his hand over the table, which means "No
more bets". Then he'll scoop up all the losing bets towards the dealer area. 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. " when you're buying chips, to find
out whether you're making inside bets (the ones listed in purple in the table,
on specific numbers) or outside bets (the ones listed in yellow, on kinds of
numbers) 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. Roulette chips can in fact be any denomination - $1, $5,
$25, etc. When you buy in, tell the dealer what denomination you want. Minimum bets work differently for inside and outside bets. 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. 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 difference
between the true odds and what they actually pay you is 2/38, or 5.26%. 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.