How to Play Roulette
Roulette is the oldest casino game. It’s a fun game that doesn’t really require any skill, ideal for novices. The object of the game is to guess which number on the wheel the white ball thrown by the dealer will land on. To do this, you can make different types of bets.
European Roulette
European roulette is the most popular and widespread version of roulette. Its table consists of 37 numbered squares of two colours: 18 of them are red, and 18 others are black. The 37th square is the famous 0 square. If the player has the misfortune to draw the zero, he loses his entire bet without having the slightest chance of recovering it, unless of course, he has a bet on it.
However, European roulette is the most popular form of roulette in both physical and online casinos. Available as 3D roulette or live roulette with a live dealer, European roulette offers a balanced bet-win ratio and gaming experience.
European Roulette differs from American Roulette in that it has a single 0 slot. And while European Roulette is often confused with French Roulette, the two can be separated, as French Roulette has some unique rules that do not apply to European Roulette. In any case, players seem to prefer European roulette for one major reason: the house edge is not very disabling and offers a good challenge.
How to Play European Roulette?
The European Roulette dial has one less slot than the American version, which has a significant impact on the odds, which are twice as interesting for players as the American Roulette dial. For players, it is preferable to opt for the European roulette which allows better profits in the short term and even more so in the long term.
It should be noted that European roulette accepts the 0 as a full number, and it can also be included in a straddle bet (i.e. a bet on two numbers). On the other hand, the 0 is formally excluded from other bets in this specific variant of roulette. However, by choosing a horse bet, square bet, cross bet or sixteenth bet, the player is more likely to hit the right numbers than in American roulette, and will be rewarded accordingly.
American Roulette
American roulette is, as the name suggests, very popular in North American casinos. Compared to its European counterpart, American roulette has a special feature: it has 38 slots instead of 37 for European roulette.
While the European roulette wheel has boxes numbered from 1 to 36 and a 0 box on the dial, the American roulette wheel has another box that is feared by all players, even the most skilled, the 00 box (or double zero).
It can be concluded that the probability of winning for a player who makes a bet other than a full bet (i.e. a bet on a specific number) is lower in American roulette than in European roulette. In American roulette, when the ball freezes on the double zero box, the player loses his entire bet, unless he bets on it. Furthermore, statistically, the mere presence of the double zero box reduces the participant’s chances of winning.
How to Play American Roulette?
Before you start playing American Roulette, there are a few things you need to understand. First of all, even though American Roulette has so-called ‘trap’ boxes (the zero box and the double zero box), it is perfectly possible to bet on them.
However, while one might be tempted to believe that the maximum payout is 38 times the player’s bet in American Roulette, the truth is that the maximum odds on which you can capitalize on a full bet in this variant are only 35 to 1. The odds are therefore more advantageous for the casino, which asks you to pick a number out of 38, while the payouts reward you with 35 times your bet.
Otherwise, just like other variations of roulette, the American roulette carpet displays two types of bets: inside and outside bets. Inside bets are those placed in the middle of the table, while outside bets are those placed on the sides. Inside bets are riskier than side bets. For example, the payouts are 35 times the bet on a full number, compared to 5 times the bet on a sixteenth. But the reason why inside bets are more rewarding is also because the odds of them paying out are lower.
French Roulette
Very similar to European roulette, French roulette has some peculiarities. Composed of a cylinder with 37 numbers (including a zero box) and a playing surface quite similar to that of the English roulette, the French roulette was designed by the French mathematician Blaise Pascal. He was the inventor of the Pascaline – the very first arithmetic machine – and the founder of this game of chance, which was later introduced in casinos.
One of the differences between French Roulette and other forms of Roulette is the layout of the table. In French roulette, the numbers are not coloured and the distribution of the numbers and boxes on the table is different. For example, the single odds are located on the side edges of the table. In addition, while the black, even and pass boxes are on the left side of the table, the red, odd and miss boxes are on the right side.
Finally, another major distinction is the existence of a unique rule in French roulette, namely the “mise en prison”, which we will detail below.
How to Play French Roulette?
The way a French Roulette game unfolds will not come as a surprise to any particular Roulette player. As in other variations, the dealer spins the wheel and asks players to place their bets by saying “Place your bets” after rolling the ball.
When the dealer announces “No more bets”, the players can neither bet nor move their chips on the table. Finally, when the dealer says “All bets down”, the ball is about to finish its run and the winning number is about to be announced. Once the draws are known, the losing bets are requisitioned by the croupier, and the winnings are distributed to the players concerned