Roulette has captivated gamblers around the world with its glamour, mystery and excitement since it was first played in the 17th century. Despite its seemingly simple rules and relatively low house edge, the game offers a surprising depth of strategy for serious players seeking high rewards.

Roulette is a casino game based on a wheel of numbers with an optional table where players place bets. Each bet has a specific payout odds depending on where the ball will land in the game. Bets may be placed on individual numbers, various groupings of numbers, whether the number is odd or even, red or black and more. Players place chips on a betting mat corresponding to their bet, and the dealer then spins the Roulette wheel. The ball is thrown into one of the thirty-six separate compartments that make up the wheel.

The Wheel

A Roulette wheel consists of a solid wooden disk slightly convex in shape with thirty-six distinct divisions or pockets, painted alternately red and black. The outermost divisions are numbered from 1 to 36 and the inner ones are labeled with a single-zero (on European wheels only) or double-zero (0 on American tables). There are also two green compartments labelled 0 on either side of the wheel for the 00 on American-style games.

Each wheel has a special ball that lands in the pocket marked with its color and the winning number is announced by the croupier. Afterwards, the winning bets are paid and the losing ones are removed from the table. Unlike other casino games, roulette is not played with regular casino chips but a special colored set of chips. Each player gets a specific color of chips to identify themselves, and spouses are strongly encouraged to play separately during roulette games. The dealer then converts the roulette chips to normal casino chips and gives them to the winners.

Despite the fact that American roulette is the most popular version of the game in physical casinos, we strongly recommend novice players to try their hand at the European variation as it features a lower house edge of just 2.7%. Furthermore, the en prison and la partage rules that are implemented in this variation ensure players retain half of their stake on even money bets when the ball lands on zero. This is a huge bonus that significantly increases the chances of players getting the winning combination. Moreover, the game is easy to learn and fun to play.