Roulette is one of the easiest casino games to learn. This comes with a slight tradeoff though. As the Wizard of Odds put it:
“As usual the easier a game is to understand the greater the house edge, and roulette is no exception.”
This doesn’t make roulette any less entertaining to play. It’s just not great for your wallet. But if you have little to no regard for your bank account or if maybe you’re just the gambling type, than you might want to give roulette a try. If you’re interested in learning how to play, I’ve gone over the basics below along with the odds you’re given on each wager below.
Roulette Rules
Roulette is straight forward. You simply pick a number or another kind of wager and hope that the ball lands on it. If it does, you win. If it doesn’t, you lose. Simple.
So since I don’t have a bunch of rules for you to learn, I’ve listed the different wagers you can make instead along with the odds you’ll get on your money.
Roulette Bets & Payouts
- 1 Number: Betting on a single number pays 35:1.
- 2 Numbers: If you split your wager between 2 numbers, it pays 17:1.
- 3 Numbers: You’ll be getting 11:1 on your money if you wager on 3 numbers in a row.
- 4 Numbers: By wagering on 4 numbers (square), you’ll be getting 8:1 on your money.
- 5 Numbers: If you wager on the first 5 numbers, you’ll get 6:1 on a double zero layout and 8:1 on a single zero layout.
- 6 Numbers: Wagering on 6 numbers (2 rows of 3 split) will pay 5:1.
- Column: Betting on a column pays 2:1.
- Dozen: You can wager that the outcome will be a number in a dozen. There are 3 dozens, 1-12, 13-24 and 25-36. These pay 2:1.
- 24 Numbers (columns): You can choose 24 numbers by splitting two columns. This pays 1:2 or $1 for every $2 that you wager.
- 24 Numbers (dozens): Similar to columns, you can split dozens. So you can play a wager on 1-24 or 19-36. This also pays 1:2.
- Even/Odd: You’re wagering on the outcome that the number is even or odd. This pays 1:1.
- Red/Black: You’re betting that the number will be red or black. This pays 1:1.
- Low/High: You’re wagering that the number will either be low (1-18) or high (19-36). This pays 1:1.
Variations of Roulette
There are 3 variations of roulette — American, European and French. Most online casinos offer the American and European variations
The differences between the two are minor. American roulette has both the 0 and 00 pockets and a house edge of 5.26%. European roulette only has the 0 pocket and a house edge of 2.7%.
Since the French variation of roulette is what the European version was created from they’re going to be similar in most ways. The biggest difference is that the French version will have more betting options which are referred to as “call bets.” There are 3 of them: Voisins du Zero, Orphans (or Orphelins) and Tier du Cylindre.
Play Roulette Online
That’s all there is to roulette. If you do some looking around online, you’ll find that there are betting systems and strategies that claim to help you beat the game. But there is no truth to it. To quote Albert Einstein:
“No one can possibly win at roulette unless he steals money from the table while the croupier isn’t looking.”
So, just take roulette for what it is — pure gambling enjoyment. If you’d like to play roulette online, choose from one of our recommended sites above.
