Roulette is one of the easiest games to play and understand in the casino. As usual the easier a game is to understand the greater the house edge, and roulette is no exception. If you are looking for a easy to understand and slow paced table game, and are willing to sacrifice on the house edge, then you may like roulette. If you want something more stimulating or with a decent return I would suggest looking at other games.

One difference between roulette and all other table games is that roulette chips have no value denomination printed on them. This actually is the true definition of a chip, one which indicates its value is technically called a check. The roulette table comes with six to eight sets of different colored chips, each set consisting of 300 chips. When a player buys-in they get their own color and the value would be the buy-in divided by the number of chips received. The dealer will place a token on top of the dealer's stack of that color of chips to indicate the value. 

United States Rules

A U.S. roulette wheel consists of 38 numbered slots: numbers 1 to 36, a zero, and a double zero. The betting layout consists of every individual number as well as a host of "outside" or combinations of numbers. After the players make their bets the dealer spins the wheel and a ball and after several seconds the ball will land in one of the numbered slots.

The following table displays the available bets, the payoff, and the probability of winning under U.S. rules. All casinos in the U.S. follow these rules except for in Atlantic City. The house edge on all bets is 1/19, or 5.26%, except for one bet. The exception is the 0-00-1-2-3 combination, which carries a house edge of 7.89%.

United States Roulette Rules Bet Pays Probability Red 1:1 47.37% Black 1:1 47.37% Odd 1:1 47.37% Even 1:1 47.37% 1 to 18 1:1 47.37% 19 to 36 1:1 47.37% 1 to 12 2:1 31.58% 13 to 24 2:1 31.58% 25 to 36 2:1 31.58% Any one number 35:1 2.63% Two number combination 17:1 5.26% Three number combination 11:1 7.89% Four number combination 8:1 10.53% Six number combination 5:1 15.79% 0,00,1,2,3 combination 6:1 13.16%

Single Zero Rules

A few places in the U.S. offer single zero roulette. This lowers the edge on every bet is 1/37, or 2.70%. The lists below shows some places that I have seen or heard have single zero roulette. The minimums at the single zero wheels are usually higher than the double zero wheels and are open fewer hours. Often the single zero wheels are found in the high roller rooms.

Las Vegas

• The Tropicana
• The Monte Carlo
• The Stratosphere
• Mandalay Bay
• Venetian
• Aladdin
• Luxor
• Nevada Palace (ten cent minimum)

In addition the Bellagio and Mirage offer single zero roulette with the Hamburg variation of the European half back rule (see below). This means if the player makes an even money bet and the ball lands in zero the player will only lose half. This lowers the house edge to 1.35%. The Bellagio has one such wheel with a $100 minimum. The Mirage has two with minimums of $25 and $100.

Atlantic City

• Hilton
• Bally's Park Place
• Harrah's
• Caesars
• Sands
• Tropicana
• Showboat
• Taj Majal
• Trump Marina

All Other

• Grand, Tunica, Mississippi

Atlantic City Rules

In Atlantic City any all even money bets (red, black, odd, even, 1-18, 19-36) follow a variation of the European imprisonment rule (see below). In the event the ball lands in 0 or 00 the player will lose only half of any even money bet. This lowers the house edge to 2.63% on these bets. This rule does not apply on single zero wheels. 

European Rules

European roulette is played on a single wheel and also features a favorable "en prison" rule. Under this rule if the player makes any even money bet (red, black, odd, even, 1-18, 19-36) and the ball lands in zero the player either gets half the bet back or it becomes inprisoned. If an imprisoned bet wins on the next spin it is released and the player gets it back, without winnings. What is subject to debate, or rule variation, is what happens to an imprisoned bet if the ball lands in zero on the next spin. I have heard of four different rule variations and each are explained below.

1. At a casino I visited in Hamburg half of even money bets are returned if the ball lands in zero. This house edge is 1.3514%.
2. At a casino I visited in Berlin even money bets became imprisoned if the ball landed in zero. The bet was returned if it won on the next spin. If a zero occured on the second spin the bet lost. The rule card in Berlin said the player may request the croupier to move the imprisoned bet from one even money bet to another. This house edge is 1.3879%.
3. According to the American Mensa Guide to Casino Gambling an imprisoned bet remains imprisoned until a non-zero occurs. This house edge is 1.3514%.
4. According to a dealer from Holland who wrote me if two zeros occurs in a row the bet becomes double imprisoned. In this case two winning bets in a row must occur to release it. If a anything else occurs, including more zeros, the bet is lost. This house edge is 1.3706%. The dealer said that the player also has the option to get half back immediately, which is the better option. 

Number Placement

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. Most numbers are part of a pair, with one number between them. These pairs add to either 37 or 39. 

Wheel Tracking

There are books out there that promise big riches by tracking the outcomes on a roulette wheel over thousands of spins and then examining the distribution to see if the wheel is biased toward one side. I don't deny that this has been done in the past but I doubt it is a practical way to beat the casinos today. There are products the casinos can use today that track every spin and on a periodic basis run the distribution through a statistical test to check for bias. Although I am not an expert on the subject I believe wheel tracking to be a waste of time today. 

Betting Systems

Ugh. If you think you can beat roulette with a betting system please read my section debunking betting systems. If you don't believe what I say there here is what the Encyclopedia Britanica says under the subject of roulette:

The oldest and most common betting system is the Martingale or "doubling-up" system, in which bets are doubled progressively. This probably dates back to the invention of the Roulette wheel, but every day of the week some gambler somewhere reinvents it, or some variation of it, and believes he has something new. Over the years hundreds of "sure-fire" winning systems have been dreamed up, but regardless of what system is used, in the long run it cannot overcome the house's advantage of the 0, or 0 and 00. This house advantage is the only system that consistently wins in the long run.