Roulette Rules

Over the years players have developed a range of different strategies all aimed at increasing the chance of winning at roulette. One common strategy is to bet on a range of different numbers to increase the chances of a win, even though the payouts are smaller as a player includes more numbers in a bet. Other players will watch the wheel and place bets on the numbers that have not been won on before. Still others bet on numbers that have previously won, believing them to be luckier than other numbers. Regardless of your chosen strategy, it is widely recognized that roulette is a game of pure chance and luck and employing a roulette strategy, while providing a sound money management theory, will have little influence on the course of play.

Two different versions of roulette exist in Europe but there are many similarities between them. French roulette wheels and European roulette wheels feature 36 numbers represented by 37 physical slots (36 numbers plus zero.) The major difference between these two wheels and the roulette wheel common in the United States is that the American wheel features a double zero, lacking on the French and European wheels.

A player engages in a game of roulette by betting with colored chips on a roulette layout. A player places his chips on the area of the layout corresponding to the numbers on the wheel. Each player in European and French roulette receives individually colored chips enabling both himself and the croupier or dealer to keep track of his bets. The croupier swaps the colored chips for cash chips at the end of the game if a player has been successful with his bets.

The procedure of play in a game of roulette is extremely simple. The croupier calls for bets to be placed. When he is ready to spin the wheel he announces that the betting round is closed and then spins the wheel. Bets are either won or lost depending on where the ball lands inside the roulette wheel.

A variety of different bets are available to the roulette player:

Outside Even Money: payout 1:1

Four Number Bet or Corner Bet: payout 8:1

Six Number Bet: 5:1

Outside Dozen or Column Bet: 2:1

Two Number Bet or Split Bet: 17:1

Three Number Bet or Street Bet: 11:1

Single Number of Straight Up Bet: 35:1

The house advantage on a French or European roulette wheel is 2.7%. This makes the single zero roulette wheel far more favourable to play as in comparison the double zero roulette wheel or American wheel features a house advantage of 5.26%.

Two different rules are active in some casinos. The La Partage rule means if the ball lands on the zero the player loses half of his bet. Similarly the En Prison rule means the player loses half of his bet but is given the option of leaving the total bet for another spin of the wheel.

The name of the bets used in French roulette rather than European roulette differ somewhat as illustrated below:

Manque, Passe - Low or high numbers

Rouge, Noir – Red, black

Pair, Impair – Even, Odd

Colonne - Twelve Numbers in a Column

Douzaine – Twelve Numbers in a Dozen

Cheval – A Split Bet or Two Numbers

Transverdale – A Street Bet or Three Numbers

Sixaine – A Line Bet or Six Numbers

Carre – A Corner Bet or Four Numbers

En plein – A Straight Up or One Number Bet

The odds for all these bets in French roulette remain identical to those used for the purposes of European roulette.