Each roulette table moves in
sessions, each session is associated with a spin of the wheel and that spin's
result. 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) 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. There aren't many specific things that can be
considered roulette rules at the table, but here's one you shouldn't forget. After the ball has started spinning, the dealer will wave his hands across the
table and say 'no more bets'. On inside bets, the total of all
of your bets must add up to at least the table minimum. 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. The outside bets on a roulette board are
simply the bets that reside 'outside' of the main playing area of 38 numbers. 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 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. 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. 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. In other games the color of the chip
denotes the denomination, but in Roulette the color denotes only which player
the chip belongs to. For outside bets, any bet you make has to be the table minimum. In this way, Roulette is more like slots - one single bet can
win a lot. 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. 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! 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. 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. Your odds of winning a
one-number bet are 37 to 1 (37 ways to lose, 1 way to win) The
last time we checked, Single 0 Roulette was available at the Stratosphere and
the Monte Carlo on the Vegas Strip. 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. On even money bets when 0 comes up, instead of losing right
away, your bet is "imprisoned" and rides again for the next spin.