Basic Roulette

Rules

Roulette is played with a wheel with 37 or 38 numbers. The numbers 1 to 36 are each on the wheel as well as a zero and usually a double zero. Half of the numbers from 1 to 36 are red and the other half are black. After giving the players some time to place their bets the dealer will spin the wheel and spin a ball in the opposite direction. Eventually the ball will slow down and land in one of the numbers on the wheel. After the ball lands the dealer will mark the winning number on the table, collect losing bets, and pay off winning bets.

In roulette every player has their own color chips. You can specify the value of each chip when you buy in. Usually the value of each chip is set so that when you start you have a stack of about 50 to 100 chips although you can specify the value and number of chips you want to buy.

There are a host of different bets you can make, most of which have the same house edge. If there were no zeros on the wheel all of the bets would pay fair odds, except of course those on the zeros. It could be said that it is the zeros that give the house its edge and are often thought of as the dealer's numbers, despite the fact that the player can bet on them.

To the casual observer it would appear that the numbers on the wheel are not organized and seem to be distributed randomly. The only obvious patterns are that red and black numbers alternate and that usually two odd numbers alternate with two even numbers. However the distribution of numbers was carefully arranged so that the sum of the numbers for any given section of the wheel would be roughly equal to any other section of equal size. In particular the numbers are usually organized in pairs, with one number in between, and whose sum is either 37 or 39. This is true of all of the following pairs: (10,29), (25,12), (29,8), (12,19), (8,31), (19,18), (31,6), (18,21), (6,33), (21,16), (33,4), (16,23), (4,35), (23,14), (35,2), (9,30), (26,11), (30,7), (7,32), (20,17), (32,5), (17,22), (5,34), (22,15), (34,3), (15,24), (3,36), (24,13), (36,1). The only numbers that fall outside this pattern are 27,14,2,28,11,13, and 1.

Locations of single zero games

At a few places in the United States, and many in Europe, you can find single zero roulette. This is a much better gamble than double zero roulette, with a house advantage of 1/37 =~ 2.70%. Many of the single zero wheels in the U.S. have high minimums. I know of or have heard about single zero roulette at: