Online Roulette Rules: How to Play Roulette

Even though the roulette game may look complicated, its rules are more simple than the rules of most other games. However, you should still know these rules before you play the roulette. The dealer (or croupier) represents the casino. He or she will accept bets and pay out the winning chips. You are not competing with other players – only with the dealer.

 

The roulette is played on a special table with a wheel at one side of the table. There is usually up to 8 players for each table. The wheel has a channel in which the ball is rolled. The head of the wheel is located at the center – this is the part that actually spins. It has a number of slots. There are two different versions of roulette – European and USA versions. In Europe the wheel will have 37 slots used for 36 numbers (1 to 36) and one slot for zero. Casinos in United States will have a roulette wheel with 38 slots: 36 numbers and two zeros (0 and 00). Half of the number slots are red slots and the other half are black. In US system the 0 and 00 are exactly opposite to one another and have eighteen number slots on each side. The colors rotate.

 

Every player will have special chips that have a different color from other players’ chips. Players place their bets on specific numbers or groups of numbers. While players are placing their bets, the dealer spins the roulette ball: the ball spins clockwise and the wheel spins in the other direction. Players can place their bets until the dealer declares that there are “no more bets”. When the ball falls into one of the slots, the dealer positions a marker above the winning number.

 

Under the "En Prison" rule, if the ball settled on zero and you placed an even bet, you are allowed to retract your bet or leave it for the next rotation. Under the "La Partage" rule, if the ball settled on zero and you placed an even outside bet, you lose 1/2 of your bet amount without the ability to leave the rest for the next rotation.

 

Inside bets include straight bet (a bet on one specific number), split bet (a bet on two adjacent numbers), three number bet (a bet an numbers in a specific row), four number bet (a bet on four numbers), five number bet (a bet on 0, 00, 1, 2, and 3) and six line bet (a bet on six numbers in two bordering rows). Outside bets include red (a bet on red number), black (a bet on black number), even (a bet on even number), odd (a bet on odd number), low bet (a bet on numbers 1 to 18), high bet (a bet on numbers 19 to 36), dozen bet (a bet on numbers 1 to 12, 13 to 24 and 25 to 36) and column bet (a bet on numbers in a certain column).