Roulette offers glamour, mystery, and excitement to casino-goers around the world. It’s easy enough for beginners to understand, but has a surprising level of depth for serious bettors. Read on to learn all about this classic game.
Roulette is a gambling game in which players bet on which pocket the ball will fall into as it comes to rest after a spin of a wheel and table. Bets are placed by laying chips on a betting mat, the precise placement of which indicates the bet being made. The croupier then spins the roulette wheel and rolls the ball onto it. The pocket the ball lands in determines the winning number. The losing bets are cleared from the table, and winners are paid according to a payout chart. The game then begins anew with another round of betting and spinning the wheel.
The roulette wheel consists of a solid, convex wooden disk with 36 equally divided metal compartments, or pockets, painted alternately red and black. A second green pocket carries the number 0. On European-style roulette wheels, there is a single zero; on American wheels, there are both a single and double zero. The compartments are separated by metal dividers, called frets. A croupier spins the wheel and the ball, and as it comes to rest, a marker is placed on the winning number.
There are a number of different types of bets that can be placed on a roulette table, and the specifics vary depending on the type of game being played. For instance, some bets are placed on a grouping of numbers, such as the Dozens bet, in which players place their chips within one of 12 rows of the table. The Dozens bet pays out 2-1, making it a good bet for small amounts of money. Other bets are placed on groups of six numbers or more, such as the Columns and Line bets. These bets pay out at odds of 1 to 3-1, and offer better payouts than many inside bets.
Players should always play within their budget when wagering on roulette. The best way to do this is to set a maximum amount of money they can spend on the game before starting and then choosing a table that allows them to place bets in that range. Each roulette table carries a placard indicating the minimum and maximum bets allowed. It’s also a good idea to avoid dipping into your winnings for future bets, as the probabilities of hitting a particular number on the wheel don’t change based on previous results.