Roulette Rules
Roulette rules are easy to learn and straightforward to present. Except
for one or two helpful French rules for the European variant of the game,
few decisions are made except which bet you want to make on the roulette
betting layout. While gamblers want to learn the glossary of roulette, once
you know all the bets, you pretty much know the game.
For those who are brand new to roulette and want to learn the basic rules of the game, here is a basic guide to playing roulette. I'll try to start at the fundamental level and break it down to the elements of roulette--as they say, so even a caveman could learn how to play roulette.
Roulette Basics - Player versus Dealer
In
roulette, the gambler is not betting against other gamblers, as you would in
poker. Instead, the player is playing against the dealer or, better put,
against "the House" or casino. The inspector dealer and the main dealer,
known in roulette by the fancy French term, "croupier", represents the
casino.
When you walk up to the roulette wheel, the croupier will take your money and give you the equivalent in roulette chips. You'll notice these chips are not the same as the chips at a poker table or blackjack table, because each roulette player has different color chips, to make it easier to keep track of bets. Remember to wait between spins to ask the dealer to change you cash to chips or your chips to cash.
Roulette Betting
Once you have your chips, you can bet on the next spin of the wheel. You'll place your chips on the betting layout according to the best you want to make. Most of the terminology and basic study of roulette revolves around these various bets, which include over a dozen different separate types of wagers. To name a few, there are straight bets, street bets, snake bets, even/odd bets, red/black bets, 1-18 and 19-36 bets, and the 1st 12, 2nd 12, and 3rd 12 bets. There are others, of course, but all are self-explanatory once you start wagering.
You place your wagers before the spin of the wheel, then wait for the dealer to spin the wheel and set the ball to rolling along the spinning wheel. When the ball comes to a stop, it will land on one particular number. The numbers on the wheel go from 1 to 36, and include either one single-zero (in European Roulette) or both a single-zero (0) and a double-zero (00) in American Roulette.
Example of Bets in Roulette
Let's imagine for a moment that you bet on the number "17" in roulette. If the ball lands on the 17 slot or "bank", you win your wager and are paid off the odds. But others at the table (who didn't make a straight bet) might have won on that bet, too.
Seventeen is a black number in Roulette, so anyone betting "black" would have won. Anyone betting "odd" would have won. Gamblers betting on the "2nd 12" would have won, while players wagering on the "1-18" proposition would have won.
If someone placed a street bet on the "16-17-18" coming up, they would have won. Also, if someone bet on the six-line (six number) or double-street bet involving 17, they would have won. This might involve the "13-14-15-16-17-18" or the "16-17-18-19-20-21" six-line options.
Also, there are four different corner bets where the seventeen would pay off. These are wagers where you choose a block of four numbers whose corners touch on the board. So the 13-14-16-17, 14-15-17-18, 16-17-19-20, or 17-18-20-21 all would have paid off. Finally, if you bet on the middle column at 2-to-1 odds, you would have won the wager. The middle column includes the numbers 2-5-8-11-14-17-20-23-26-29-32-35.
Dealer Pays - Dealer Rakes
As you can see, paying off bets can be pretty complicated for the croupier, which is why you want to be nice and tip the dealer when you leave the table. The croupier is going to pay off all these bets according to the particular odds assigned to each proposition, while raking all the chips that were bet on losing propositions.
The House Edge in Roulette
The house edge is significant in Roulette, especially in American Roulette. Because of the inclusion of the "0" and "00" banks, the house has a built-in advantage (as they do in all casino games). If you bet even/odd or black/red or the 1-18/19-36 bets, a 0 or 00 is an automatic loss in all these cases. Column bets, street bets, and sixline bets all would be automatic losses.
If the house paid back 37-to-1 odds on a straight bet, the game would be break-even for single number wagers. But the casino pays back at 35-to-1 on a 37-to-1 proposition (in American Roulette), so the casino has an edge. That may be the most important Roulette rule to understand--the house always has the edge.
European Roulette Rules
There are a couple of special rules in French or European roulette: "en prison" and "la partage".
En Prison - If you make an even-money bet in European roulette (even/odd, black/red, etc) and the ball lands on the single-zero, the player can choose to take back half their wager (surrendering the other half), or leave the bet "en prison" or imprisoned for another spin. If the spin comes up in your favor, you take take your initial wager, but don't win a stake. If the spin goes against you, you lose the wager.
La Partage - A "la partage" rule in European roulette does not give you the option to imprison your bet--you simply lose 1/2 of your betting stake. The roulette rule is enforced and the game moves on to the next spin.
