How to Play Roulette

Take one step into the casino and look around; what do you see? The main hotspots will always be the slot machines, the blackjack tables and of course the roulette wheel. The big wheel, and mainly the stale with all the options drawn on it may seem a bit confusing at first, but the rules of the game are simpler than you might imagine, the betting scheme is easy, and at the end of the day (or night) it's always going to be a thrill.

To begin with, a few basic elements; the game is no more than a wheel and a ball which is set spinning in one direction while the wheel spins in the other, waiting for the ball to drop into one of the pockets of the wheel. The pockets are numbered one through thirty-six with one more numbered zero. Here there is an important change to keep in mind; in an American roulette the wheel includes another pocket marked double zero which lowers your chances of winning because of the higher house odds. So the first thing you need to check before you begin, is that the wheel in a European one, to give yourself a better shot at winning. The basic idea is the same; you want to guess where the ball will land, in which one of the numbered pockets coloured alternately black and red. There are a few ways to bet and these can be divided into two basic groups; inside and outside bets.
 
Inside bets basically involve betting on one of the numbers of the wheel, which you do by putting your chips down on the roulette table right on the number, which is called a straight up bet. To make life more interesting you can split your bet and put your chips on numbers that are next to each other and this is then called a split bet (nice logic right?). There are a few other inside bets that cover 3, 4, 6 or more numbers at the same time. These bets pay according to how many numbers you are covering, starting with 35:1 for a straight bet down to 5:1 on a 6-number bet.  

You can also try for the outside bets which in essence involves all the bets that aren't distinctive numbers, but groups. So for example you could bet on one of the colours; black or red, or you could go with odds or evens. There is even high or low, which is exactly what it sounds like; the higher numbers on the wheel or the lower. Of course your options don't end there, but that's pretty good to start with. These bets pay 1:1, and are called Even Bets. You can also cover co columns of numbers as they are drawn on the table, and this bet pays 2:1.

The Roulette game has many faces - you can play the straight bets by intuition for a chance to hit a 35:1 payout and experience the real thrill, or you can pick up some roulette tips and play sensibly for lower payouts but steadier wins. Either way you go, Roulette is undoubtedly a compelling game and an experience every player must have a taste of at least once.