There is a spinning wheel that has numbered slots in it. The Dealer or Croupier gets this wheel to spin and while it is turning, he or she throws a ball around the spinning wheel. The ball lands in one of the slots by chance. Roulette is played everywhere the same way, but different countries have different odds. For example, a European Roulette wheel has 36 numbers + zero = 37 slots. But an American Roulette wheel has 38 slots because it has an extra zero slot.

Playing Roulette

1)  The Roulette table is marked so that you can choose where to put your marker or playing tokens

2)  Until the ball is about to drop into the slot and you hear 'No more bets', you can continue playing

3)  When the ball stops spinning around the wheel and lands in a slot, you know what the winning number is. The croupier will pick up all the losing bets and pay the winners.

4)  By being close to the winning number, you can also get some payment.

The house advantage
If the Roulette wheel has one zero, the casino has a house advantage of 2.7%. Many casinos add another zero to the wheel so that they can increase their advantage to 5.26%.

'En Prison' rule
Half your bet remains on the table for a second round or is returned to you. This is called the En Prison (in prison) rule.

' La Partage' rule
In contrast to En Prison, here all you can do with the La Partage rule is to reclaim half of your bet.

Roulette payouts
A 'Straight-Up' bet means that you can get 35:1 payment odds so long as you bet on only one number. The House Advantage gives you 37:1 for European Roulette and 38:1 for American Roulette.

Split Bet for 2 numbers, for a 17:1 payout.

Street Bet for 3 numbers, for 11:1 payout.
Corner Bet for 4 numbers, for 8:1 payout.
6 number bet, for 5:1 payout.
Column Bet or Outside Dozen, for 2:1 payout.
Outside Even Money Area, for 1:1 payout.