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, as you intuition may have mentioned
to you, you can't place any more bets. Now lets take a look at each of the individual bets you can make. The
inside bets are made up of specific numbers or combinations of numbers within
the number layout, or along the border of it. 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. When you place an outside
bet your bet must meet the table minimum. There
are the different types of outside bets. Red or Black - you can choose to bet on
the outcome either being a red number, or a black number. Columns - at one end of the set of 38 numbers are
boxes with the words '2 to 1' written in them.
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 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. 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, you're not locked in
and you always have the ability to change your mind. In other games the color of the chip
denotes the denomination, but in Roulette the color denotes only which player
the chip belongs to. When you buy in, tell the dealer what denomination you want. Minimum bets work differently for inside and outside bets. 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! It's important to
understand that the outcome of the roulette wheel is truly random. There's an old saying,
"The wheel has no memory. 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. 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. On even money bets when 0 comes up, instead of losing right
away, your bet is "imprisoned" and rides again for the next spin. In effect, this variation has the ability to turn a loss into a tie.