The Basics of Roulette
Roulette is a casino game that offers glamour, mystery and excitement to players around the world. Based solely on luck, this game has a high winning potential and is wildly popular in land and online casinos. It’s easy to learn the basics of this game, but there is a deeper level of strategy for those who want to make the most of their winning opportunities.
Roulette, from French for a small wheel or cylinder, is a table game where players place chips on a designated area of the table. Each player receives a color of chip to help differentiate their bets from the others. It’s recommended that you keep your bets separate from those of the people sitting next to you, even if it is your spouse. In most cases, you can cash out your roulette chips at any time. When you do, the dealer will give you normal casino chips in return.
The game is played at a special table with a circular disk (the roulette wheel) and several other sections that afford the players a variety of betting options. The wheel contains 37 or 38 compartments, numbered nonconsecutively from 1 to 36 and a single zero (or double zero on American-style wheels).
Around the outside of the wheel are metal compartments, called separators or frets by croupiers, with the numbers on them painted alternately red and black. There are also two green compartments with the sign 0 on European-style wheels. The game originated in France’s illegal gambling dens where a makeshift wheel was used, and eventually made its way to America where the double-zero version became famous.
Whether you’re playing American or European roulette, there are a few basic strategies that will increase your chances of winning. The most popular one is the Martingale system, where you bet on even-only chips and increase your stake after every loss. Another popular strategy is the Labouchere system, where you set your desired win amount and change your stake amounts based on the outcome of each spin.
In general, we recommend that you play the European roulette game because it has higher winning probabilities than the American version. However, you should still familiarize yourself with the rules of each version before you start betting.