Roulette Systems

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How to play roulette

Roulette is one of the oldest casino table games, and it is also one of the easiest to play.  The dealer spins a wheel in one direction and a ball in the other direction, and the aim of the game is to guess which number or 'type' of number the ball will land in.  When the ball lands in a number, the dealer calls out the winning number and places a marker on it.  The table is cleared of the losing bets and then all the winning bets are paid.

There are two types of roulette which are often distinguished as European roulette or American roulette.  The only difference being that in American roulette there is one extra number which is called double zero.  See the charts below to view the different types of bets that can be placed:

European Roulette

American Roulette

European Roulette - how to play chart American Roulette - how to play chart

For instance, you can bet a Straight Up, which means your bet is placed on any of the single numbers. You can also place combination bets. These are bets divided over a combination of adjoining numbers.

If you place a Street bet on the line adjoining 7, it would pay odds of 11 to 1 if the ball lands in either 7, 8 or 9. You can also place bets on zero, or double zero if you are playing American roulette.

A Column bet is placed in one of the three boxes at the bottom of the table and pays odds of 2 to 1 if the ball comes to rest in one of the numbers in that column.

A Dozen bet is placed in one of the boxes marked 'Dozen' and would pay odds of 2 to1 as per the following:

  • 1st Dozen - numbers between 1 and 12

  • 2nd Dozen - numbers between 13 and 24

  • 3rd Dozen - numbers between 25 and 36

When you place a bet on 1-18, 19-36, Odd, Even, Red, Black, Dozens or Columns and the ball comes to rest on zero or double zero, your bet loses. The only time you will win when the ball comes to rest on zero or double zero is when you have bet on zero or double zero or any combination of zero or double zero.

For a full list of the payouts, odds and house edge for both European roulette and American roulette please see the page on roulette probabilities.