Roulette has offered glamour, mystery and excitement to casino-goers since the 17th century. It’s an easy game to understand, yet has a surprising level of depth for serious players who employ a proper strategy. With its simple rules and fast pace, the game has attracted many people who have tried to beat it by calculating patterns in the spins. But these systems often prove flawed and lead to losses.
The modern-day roulette wheel consists of a solid, slightly convex wood disk with metal separators called frets or compartments around its rim. Thirty-six of these are painted alternately red and black, and numbered non-consecutively from 1 to 36; a green compartment on the European wheel carries the number 0, while on American wheels two green compartments carry 0 and 00. A dealer spins the wheel in one direction and rolls a small ball in the opposite direction around a tilted circular track that runs around the outside of the wheel. A bet is placed on a section of the table marked to correspond with the compartments on the wheel.
A number of betting options are available to players, including individual numbers, various groupings of numbers, the color red or black and whether the number is odd or even. Some bets require a minimum amount of chips, while others pay out much higher odds. Bets can also be made on a single number, the zero pocket or any combination of numbers within a dozen (the second, third or fourth dozens).
Before the wheel is spun, players place their bets on the table map. Each roulette table carries a placard with the minimum and maximum bets allowed. Choosing a table that offers a low minimum bet will help players maximize their profits. It’s best to avoid placing bets on “inside” numbers, which tend to have lower payouts, and instead opt for groups of numbers positioned on the perimeter of the table.
The Roulette wheel has two other interesting symmetries. First, the low red and black numbers are on the same side of the wheel as the zero, while the high red and black numbers are on the other side. This makes it difficult for a player to predict where the ball will land.
To avoid the possibility of cheating, casinos will call ‘no more bets’ just as the wheel is about to stop spinning. This prevents players from placing their chips before the wheel has come to a full stop, and it also stops them from using any sort of additional advantage. Online roulette games do not have this limitation, but players should be aware that the layout will lock once the dealer announces ‘no more bets!’