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. 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) All of your chips of the same
color are worth the same amount. 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. On inside bets, the total of all
of your bets must add up to at least the table minimum. Corner bet -
lets you bet on four adjoining numbers. Placing your chips at the point where
four numbers meet will indicate you want a corner bet. There
are the different types of outside bets.
You should always calculate your expected
loss and how long you can play on a given bankroll before playing any game, but
with roulette it's especially important. Making a bet is easy - you just place your chip(s) on the number(s), color, or
sets you want to bet on. We've added blue circled letters to the diagram to point out
how to make the not-so-obvious bets (the sets of 2-6 numbers) When the ball is getting
ready to drop, the dealer will wave his hand over the table, which means "No
more bets". Don't reach for your winnings until the dealer
removes the marker, or the dealer will scold you. If you're asked Inside or Outside, always answer "Both",
even if you only intend to bet one or the other. There's no advantage to
limiting yourself to inside or outside. In other games the color of the chip
denotes the denomination, but in Roulette the color denotes only which player
the chip belongs to. 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! 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. 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. If you play Roulette, the most important thing is to find a casino that
offers the European wheel (which is called "Single 0" Roulette) 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. 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.