Roulette Rules
If you want to be successful at roulette, there are two things you’ve got to do: study the rules and practice, practice, practice. Here you can read about the most important roulette rules.
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There is no other casino game that offers as many different ways to bet and to win as roulette does. To have maximum chances of winning you need to be familiar with the rules of Roulette. This is particularly important for beginners as these rules can be very confusing. For a quick recap of the very basic roulette tricks you need to know, look no further than our shortlist of 4 roulette tricks.
To get a good idea about how to play roulette read our summary of the most important rules. Once you get a decent grasp of the basics, you should probably try them out in an online casino right away. For this purpose, 888 Casino is highly recommended. The screen shots found in this guide were taken from this casino.
The Most Common Versions of Roulette
As with all casino games, online roulette has countless variations, some exclusive to certain casino sites. As such it would be virtually impossible to list all these versions here therefore the following guide will explain the basic rules of the standard game which will feature on virtually all online casinos. However, there are two major variations which will be found in both online and offline casinos that you should be aware of:
French Roulette
French Roulette is the traditional version of roulette – it is what most people probably picture when thinking about the game in casinos. On the French Roulette wheel and table layout there are 36 numbers plus the 0 (zero). These numbers form the basis of the game. French roulette is also sometimes referred to as European roulette. As it is the most common version of Roulette we are going to focus on explaining the rules of French roulette in this rules guide. However, there is another version that you may encounter often:
American Roulette
In some casinos you may also find the American version of roulette. The main distinction is a difference in layout, which is designed to speed up the playing of the game. However, American roulette has one major alteration: in addition to the regular 36 numbers and the zero there is also a box marked with 00 (double zero), which obviously increases the house advantage. For this reason we advise against playing the American version of roulette. You have more chance of winning in French or European roulette.
For more – check out bettingexpert’s Roulette Strategy Guide.
The Roulette Table Layout
The roulette wheel and table layout constitute the game of roulette. The green area is called table layout, this is where you place your bets. And then there is the roulette wheel where the ball is launched by the croupier. From this point the game is pretty straight forward, the player bets on which number he thinks the ball will come to rest on. However, there are a wide number of different betting options available to spread your chances of success.
On the French roulette wheel there is a total 37 slots representing the numbers 1 – 36 and zero. The numbers 1 – 10 alternate between black and red coloring. For any higher number the color is determined by the color of its digit sum.
Here is one example: The number 2 is black, which means that also the 11 or the 20 are black, because they each have a digit sum of 2.
As a result of that, 2 numbers, even though they are placed next to each other on the layout, don’t necessarily need to have different colours. However, there are of course the same total amount of black and red numbers in the game.
The Zero in French Roulette
When looking at the table layout you can’t help but noticing the green colored 0. The zero basically represents the advantage of the house. Therefore, the additional zero in American roulette effectively doubles house advantage.
If the ball in French roulette ends up on the zero, all the bets on more than one number are lost, they go straight to the casino. For a bet that is on one number only, there is two different possibilities when the outcome is zero: either the player loses half of it or the whole bet is being ‘sent to prison’. In French, this is referred to as being ‘en prison’. What this means is that the bet has to remain on the layout the way it is, so the player is basically suspended for the next spin. Therefore the En prison rule gives you the chance of winning your money back, that normally would have been lost to the house.
But are all the other betting options available in roulette?
Betting Options in Roulette
Simple Chances
Within the 37 different numbers (1 – 36 and 0) there are a wide range of different possible bets available. The so-called simple chances put a bet on certain groups of numbers, the chances of winning are close to 50% (offset by the 0). You can put your bet either on all red or all black numbers, on all even or odd numbers, or on the low (1 – 18) or high (19 – 36) numbers. If you win, the payout ratio is 1:1, which means that will you win the same amount that you put in for a bet. The 0 makes the odds of a simple chances bet 18/37 or approximately 48.6%.
Multiple Chances
Richer in variety are the different betting possibilities with the so called multiple chances. Your odds of winning are much lower than betting on simple chances, but in event of a win, the payout is much higher. Logically, the payouts of each betting option directly relate to the chances of that event occuring.
For instance: if you place a bet on a single number, you can win 35 times your original bet (so the payout ratio is 35:1). So for example if you place a €100 bet on this option you could win €3500!
The Roulette Wheel
Betting on the table layout is not the only possible way of placing a bet playing roulette. You can also identify the real roulette pros, when they take advantage of the whole range of roulette rules and use the so called announced (or call) bets.
What are Announced Bets?
When looking at the roulette wheel one will notice quickly that the numbers don’t appear in their natural order (0 – 36) but seem rather random. But on closer inspection they are of course not random. There is an elaborate system that tries to spread the three pairs of simple chances (red/black, even/odd, 1 – 18/19 – 36) as evenly as possible on the wheel. The result of that is a quite confusing looking sequence of numbers.
The order of numbers on the wheel gives the player various different betting possibilities. You can for example place a bet on two numbers that are placed next to each other on the wheel (this is called ‘split’). All you have to do is to tell the croupier your choice. He is the roulette dealer and he watches and controls the game.
The croupier then will place your bet on the table layout. There are three betting possibilities that are defined in the roulette rules: the ‘voisins du zero’ (neighbors of zero – 22/18/29/7/28/12/35/3/26/0/32/15/19/4/21/2/25), the ‘tiers du cylindre’ (thirds of the wheel, also called ‘small series’ – 27/13/36/11/30/8/23/10/5/24/16/33) and the ‘orphelins’ (orphans – 1/20/14/31/9/17/34/6).
If you play with the announced bets, you’ve got to be aware of the fact that in a lot of cases you will have to put higher bets – because the total amount of stakes you have to put on the layout is higher than if you were going for the simple chances. For the orphelins you will typically require need 5 units, 6 for the tiers and 9 for the voisins.
However, you can also call out the section of numbers, that you want to place your bet on yourself, for example on one number and its two neighbors, that are left and right of it on the wheel. In this case you could announce for instance “9-2-2”. Then the croupier knows, that you bet on the 9 and the two neighbors on each side of it, so a total of five numbers (14, 31, 9, 22, 18). In this case, the type of bet is called a ‘straight up’ bet, so in effect you are placing a total of 5 stakes.
You can also play a game with announced bets online, but then you have to place the bets yourself, which can be a bit confusing – especially for beginners.
This way of playing is preferred by players who are confident they can predict the sector of the wheel in which the ball will end up.
What are Final Bets?
A final bet (finals or finale) is a bet on all numbers that share their last digit. It has to be announced to the croupier: ‘final 5’ would for example be the bet of 4 stakes on straight up 5, 15, 25, 35 – so all numbers that end with a 5. You can also play the split-final bets. You place a bet on the number and also its neighbors and their last digits. For instance: final 4/7 bets also on 14/17 and 24/27. The stakes vary depending on the kind of the final bet between 3 and 6.
Maximum Bets
The rules of roulette determine the amount of money that can be won and lost: each table in a casino has a maximum and a minimum bet which can vary by a huge amount. Before you start a game you should always find out what the maximum and minimum bets are, so you can manage the money you are playing with in a good and useful way.
The maximum and minimum bets also regulate the game when you are playing roulette online. At 888 Casino the minimum bet on all the tables is £1.
Roulette Strategies
Ever since the game of roulette was introduced, mathematicians, casino fans and passionate strategists have been working on generating strategies that are supposed to increase the odds of winning. The vast majority came to the conclusion that ultimately they can only have limited control over what is happening, because they can’t influence their luck. If you want to find out more about roulette strategies, click here.
Are you ready to play some roulette now? We wish you the best of luck, and have fun!
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