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ROULETTE
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FEATURES
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COLUMNS |
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| Hot Bets
Tips from our SportsBook expert
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How to Play: Roulette
Round and round it goes...
Unlike some games, where the house's upper hand is hidden (locked in the computer chips of slot machines or obscured in the maze of bets in craps), in roulette, it's right out in the open. The roulette wheel has 38 "pockets," those numbered 1 to 36 in red and black, plus two more (0 and 00) that pay the house. These last two are aptly colored green, to remind you of where the money goes.
A fair wheel would pay 37 to 1 on a straight bet, but casinos only pay 35 to 1 (keeping the 0 and 00 out of the equation, and funneling the money right in their own pocket). What this means is that over time, the house takes at least 5.26 percent of bets.
What that also means is that in roulette, you're counting on luck, because there are only a couple of extreme long-shot ways to actually gain an advantage on the house (see "Betting Tips"). There is no "system" that has ever been proven to win at roulette, other than selling a book that claims to have such a system.
After bets are placed (see next paragraph), the roulette dealer, or croupier, spins the wheel counterclockwise and tosses a small ball the opposite way until it loses speed and randomly lands in one of the pockets. The winning number is then called and bets settled.
There are a variety of bets that can be made. The betting spots on the table where you place your chips are divided into two main areas: inside and outside. The numbered inside bets correspond to the numbered slots inside the wheel where the ball falls. The outside bets correspond to the set groupings, sometimes written outside the wheel (like evens or odds, red or black, 1-18, 19-36, 1st 12, 2nd, etc.).
The numbered inside bets have the highest payoff and the highest risk. Making a "straight" inside bet, you simple place your chip directly on a number, which the house pays off at 35 to 1. You can also make a "split bet" by placing a chip on the line between two numbers (17:1).
You make a "square" or corner bet by putting a chip at the intersection of four numbers (8:1). You make a three-way "street" bet by placing a chip at the top of a row of three numbers (11:1). You make a six-way bet by placing a chip at the intersection of two three-way rows (5:1).
Outside bets are less risky and pay off at a lower rate. You can bet a group of 12 (1-12, 13-24, 25-36) or place a wager at the end of a column of 12 for a 2:1 odds. You also have the option of playing evens or odds, red or black, numbers 1-18 and 19-36 for even money.
But remember, in all cases the house odds listed are less than true odds, and each gives the casino its 5.26 percent statistical edge.
Over time, you'll lose just as much money betting on red or black as you would betting a straight bet on 27 every spin.
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 In French, the back end of a horse is called the croup. Does that make the croupier a horse's ass? Sort of. The French called the servant who rode on the back of the horse after his boss a croupier, and eventually this became the term for a casino assistant.
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If you let your bet ride on the same spot for a second spin, it's called a parlay. With luck, it lets you parlay your winnings into a larger pile.
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Did the devil make you do it? If you add up all the numbers on the roulette wheel, 1 through 36, it totals 666.
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Roulette is French for "little wheel." Merd is what you say when the spin doesn't go your way.
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French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal is said to have created a primitive version of roulette in 1655.
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The modern version of roulette was invented by French brothers Francois and Louis Blanc in 1842.
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The European roulette wheel has a single 0. The version of the game with a 0 and a 00 was first popularized during the California gold rush and became known as the American wheel.
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