Roulette is perhaps one of the most recognisable casino games around. There’s no mistaking the design of its central wheel and its unique style of gameplay, with no playing cards or dice in sight.
But how does a game of casino Roulette play out? While the core concept of the game is straightforward, its various rules and the different types of wagers on offer can appear daunting at first glance. Not to mention, there are a couple of major varieties of Roulette that have slightly different formats and rulesets to account for.
The core of Roulette
At its most basic, Roulette is a game that revolves around the spinning wheel and its numbered pockets. Players wager on which pocket of the wheel a ball will land in, or more general elements such as the pocket’s colour or whether the number is odd or even.
This is where the differences between varieties start to come into play, with American Roulette wheels featuring a different number of pockets compared to European or French Roulette.
Where a European Roulette wheel has 37 pockets, including a single green zero, an American wheel has a total of 38 pockets with the addition of the double zero pocket. This extra pocket shifts the house edge from 2.70% to 5.26%.
Understanding the table layout
The table layout is another core part of the Roulette game, with the printed layout setting out the various wagering options. In a game at a land-based casino, players will place their counters on specific squares or positions to indicate their chosen wager.
It’s from the layout that the two main types of wager get their names – inside or outside bets.
Inside bets are found on the three central columns of the layout, which list all the wheel’s numbered pockets. These types of bet include:
- Straight-up – placed on a single number
- Split – placed on two adjacent numbers
- Street – placed on a row of three numbers
- Corner – placed on four numbers that form a square
- Six line – placed on two adjacent rows for six numbers total
Outside bets are placed in parts of the layout surrounding the numbered columns, covering larger groups of numbers than an inside bet. These include:
- Red/black – placed on the pocket’s colour
- Odd/even – placed on whether the number is odd or even
- High/low – placed on whether the number will be low (1-18) or high (19-36)
- Dozens – placed on one of the three dozens (1-12, 13-24 or 25-36)
- Column – placed on one of the three central columns
Roulette Gameplay
There are three distinct stages to a game of Roulette. First, there is the wagering phase, where players will decide on their wager and place their counters on that part of the table layout if they’re playing with a physical table. This phase continues until the croupier announces “no more bets”.
Next, the croupier will spin the Roulette wheel in one direction and release a ball around its rim in the opposite direction. Once the ball loses momentum, it will eventually come to rest in one of the numbered pockets, determining the outcome of the game.
The final phase of the game involves the croupier announcing the result – both its number and colour – before clearing the table and handling any payouts.
And that’s all there is to it. Roulette is a simple game at its heart, although it’s important to check which format is being played.
