Roulette for Beginners

Roulette is a glamorous casino game, just ask James Bond. The roulette table can be a little intimidating if your are unsure of how the game works. If you want to play, try a few free online games first to get the hang of roulette betting. You can find online casino games that look real, but you play with pretend money. Then you will be ready to hit the casinos and not look like a novice.

When you walk up to a roulette table to play, you have to get new chips. Your chips from the other casino games will not be used at the roulette table. The dealer needs to differentiate between players, so everyone plays different colored chips. If you win, you will receive regular chips with a cash value.

In American style roulette, there are 38 numbered slots that the ball can fall into, and two slots marked zero and double zero. The numbered compartments are colored alternately black and red and the zeros are green. You place your bet by choosing a number, you can chose zero if you desire. Place your bet on the inside or the outside and the dealer, also called the croupier, spins the wheel. You can place bets once the wheel is spinning up until the time the dealer says "no more bets". If someone already has chips on the number you want to play, stack your chips on top of theirs, this is allowed. Sometimes the roulette table size prevents you from reaching the number that you want to place your chips on. Just ask the dealer to move them to your desired number or spot. You win if the spinning ball falls into a numbered slot which you have placed a bet on.

Betting on a specific number is called an inside bet. An outside bet, which are really located on the outside of the roulette layout, are bets include those that are placed on red or black, odd or even numbers, and bets that cover high or low and sections of the roulette layout. Inside bets payout much more money if you win. A bet on the outside dozen only pays 2 to 1. You can also bet on boxes marked low which covers numbers 1-18 or high which covers numbers 19-36. The payoff is only 1 to 1 though.

Roulette is always played against the house. You can place your bet on one number or on several numbers for each spin. Betting on multiple numbers reduces the amount that you may win. If you bet on one number only, the payout if you win is 35 to 1. Betting on two numbers by placing your bet on the line between them pays 17 to 1. Placing your bet on three numbers by putting your chips at at their intersecting point pays 11 to 1. Remember, just because a bet pays 35 to 1, those are not the odds. For example, betting on a single number pays 35 to 1, but the odds are really 37 to 1.

Once you understand the game, you will realize that there is no betting system that guarantees winning. The house always has the edge. Play free roulette online with play money to get the feel of the game and learn the bets. It really is an easy game to play and a lot of fun.