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) 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. 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. Split bet - you can place a single bet on two individual numbers if those numbers are beside each other on the table layout. 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. Columns - at one end of the set of 38 numbers are boxes with the words '2 to 1' written in them.

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. The house edge is the same whether you make one bet per spin or several. 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. Each player's chips are a different color. 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. Minimum bets work differently for inside and outside bets. For outside bets, any bet you make has to be the table minimum. Inside bets can usually be as small a you like, as long as the total of all your inside bets is 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) 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. 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. 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. You don't get paid for the win, though, but it's better than losing it outright.