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What is roulette?
Roulette is a casino game that requires you to place bets on which numbered pocket a ball will land on after it’s released onto a spinning wheel. It originated in ancient China and Greece, and has evolved over the centuries to become a beloved table game enjoyed by gamblers the world over.
Today, roulette remains very popular at both online casinos and local casinos in India, thanks to its straightforward yet fast-paced gameplay and the range of entertaining variants available.
How to play roulette step-by-step
Playing roulette is pretty simple once you understand the steps involved. The good thing about roulette is the game works the same way in both online and physical formats and despite its many variations, the basic rules always remain the same.
Select your chip size, and then place your chips into the relevant area of the roulette table. Specific areas of the table represent different bet types and numbers on the wheel. The chips will have colours and/or monetary amounts printed on them to denote how much they’re worth.
Hit ‘Spin’ to release the ball onto the wheel, or wait for the croupier to do so in live and brick-and-mortar roulette games. The ball will normally complete several trips around the wheel before it eventually lands on one of the numbered pockets.
Once the number the ball has landed on is confirmed, any winning bets will be paid out. If you placed a bet covering the winning number, you’ll get the corresponding payout, while if you didn’t, you’ve lost that wager.
Roulette wheel and table
An important part to learning how roulette works is understanding the roles of the roulette wheel and table, as these determine how you place your bets and whether they’ve won.
Roulette wheel
The roulette wheel is the wheel onto which the ball is released in every round and where the main action takes place. There are two main types of roulette wheel:
European wheel: Contains 37 numbered pockets from 0 to 36. European wheels have a house edge of 2.70%.
American wheel: Contains 38 numbered pockets featuring the zero (0), double zero (00), and 1 to 36. American wheels have a house edge of 5.26%.
On roulette wheels, the zero (and double zero) have green pockets, while each number from 1 to 36 has a red or black pocket. The pocket in which the ball lands in every round determines whether or not your bet(s) are successful.
Roulette table
The roulette table is where you place your bets before each round and is divided into the ‘inside’ and ‘outside’.
The inside is where you place your chips to make inside bets. It lists the numbers 1 to 36 in order in a grid of 12 rows of three, with a specific row for the zero (and double zero on American tables) at the top.
The outside of the table has betting spaces either side of the inside where you can put your chips to make outside bets. These normally have segments for specific wagers, such as ‘Red’, ‘Black’, ‘Odd’, ‘Even’, ‘High’, and ‘Low’.
Roulette bet types and payouts
While there are numerous different bets you can place in roulette, they are generally divided into inside and outside wagers.
It’s important to note that the payouts in roulette are designed to ensure a house edge for the casino. For instance, while a red/black bet has a payout of 1:1, your odds of winning aren’t actually 50/50 due to the presence of the green zero (and double zero on American wheels). The house edge varies among common roulette variants, but generally falls between 1.35% and 5.26%.
Outside bets
Outside bets are wagers that involve placing your chips on any betting segment not in the inside section of the table. These tend to cover larger groups of numbers, and therefore offer even money or 2:1 payouts:
| Bet type | Description | Numbers covered | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
Red/Black | A bet on whether the ball will land on a red or black pocket. | 18 | 1:1 |
Odd/Even | A bet on whether the ball will land on an odd or even number. | 18 | 1:1 |
High/Low | A bet on whether the ball will land on a number that is “high” (19 to 36) or “low” (1 to 18). | 18 | 1:1 |
Column | A bet on one of the three columns of 12 numbers in the inside of the roulette table. | 12 | 2:1 |
Dozen | A bet that the ball will land on a number among a specific set of 12 (1 to 12, 13 to 24, or 25 to 36). | 12 | 2:1 |
Inside bets
Inside bets are placed by putting your chips inside the grid of numbers on the roulette table. Common inside bets cover one to six numbers and award more lucrative payouts as a result:
| Bet type | Description | Numbers covered | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
Straight up | A bet that the ball will land on a specific number. | 1 | 35:1 |
Split | A bet that the ball will land on one of two adjoining numbers (e.g., 1 and 2). | 2 | 17:1 |
Street | A bet that the ball will land on one of three numbers in a row (e.g., 4, 5, 6). | 3 | 11:1 |
Corner | A bet that the ball will land on a number in a 2x2 grid (e.g., 7, 8, 10, 11). | 4 | 8:1 |
Six line / double street | A bet that the ball will land on one of six numbers across two rows (e.g., 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18). | 6 | 5:1 |
Roulette betting strategies
There are several popular strategies that experienced roulette players use. You may find it useful to try these out to help decide which wagers you want to place in every round:
This requires you to stake 60% of your wager on a red/black or odd/even bet and the other 40% on a column bet. If you bet on red and the middle column or black and the right column, this covers 26 numbers on the wheel.
With ₹100 wagers, this strategy is expected to result in a loss of ₹100 every 37 rounds, but may prove capable of landing short-term profits.
To use the D’Alembert strategy, you must set a starting unit amount (for instance, ₹100). Then, if you lose your next bet, increase your wager by one unit, and if you win, decrease it by one unit.
For instance, if your unit amount is ₹100 and your last bet was ₹300, increase your bet to ₹400 if you lost and decrease it to ₹200 if you won.
The D’Alembert offers a less risky way to recoup your losses compared to alternatives like the Martingale strategy, but can still result in big deficits if you endure a losing streak.
This involves placing an eight-unit bet, of which two sets of three units are wagered on separate dozen bets and one unit each is placed on two separate corner bets featuring remaining numbers, resulting in a bet covering 32 numbers in total.
If one of the 32 numbers comes up, you’ll win a profit equivalent to one-eighth of your overall bet amount, although you can potentially incur large losses if the ball lands on any other.
Popularised by the Ian Fleming novel Casino Royale, this involves placing 70% of your wager on a high bet, 25% on a six line bet of 13 to 18, and the remaining 5% on zero, thereby covering 25 numbers in total.
If a winning number comes up, you’re guaranteed a profit of 40-80% of your bet amount (with the most lucrative returns on zero), but you’re otherwise expected to lose ₹12 for every ₹100 wagered across 37 rounds.
Online vs. real life roulette
While roulette games at online casinos and brick-and-mortar venues feature the same rules and gameplay, there are some key differences between the two that you should consider if you’re a roulette beginner:
| Online roulette | Real life roulette |
|---|---|
✅ Online casinos are likely to have a larger range of roulette games | ✅ Offers a more sociable, inviting, and exciting experience |
✅ You can claim casino bonuses to boost your bankroll | ✅ Can host several players at once, unlike RNG games |
✅ Allows you to play roulette where and when you like | ✅ Can see full size roulette tables and wheels to understand how the game works |
❌ Offers a less social and immersive experience | ❌ Requires you to travel to a brick-and-mortar casino |
❌ Not beneficial if you’d prefer to learn how to play in-person | ❌ Likely to have fewer games and promotions |
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Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
In roulette, you must place bets on which pocket of the roulette wheel you think the ball will land. If your bet is successful, you receive the corresponding payout.
No, roulette is a game of chance, so there’s no way you can guarantee winning bets. The game is also designed to give the casino a house edge, meaning you’re expected to lose money when you play in the long term.
Technically yes, although doing this would result in you losing money. For instance, if you placed a ₹100 straight up bet on all 37 numbers on a European wheel, you would only win back ₹3,600 from ₹3,700 worth of bets.
No, European roulette wheels have 37 numbered pockets from 0 to 36 while American wheels have an extra double zero (00) pocket. European and American wheels also arrange the numbers in a different order, while European roulette (2.70%) has a better house edge than American roulette (5.26%).
No, there isn’t a roulette system you can use to guarantee yourself a profit. However, they can prove useful in helping you decide which bets to place and the level of risk that you’re comfortable with.
No, 0 (and 00) are independent of odd/even bets in roulette. If you bet on even and the ball lands on 0, your wager will lose.
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