Now that you have learnt all about the game, the different bets, odds and payouts, we invite you to start playing for today to practice the strategies you have read about at Ask Roulette.

Here you can find online roulette games which are all free of charge.

But the truth is that there is no way to beat the odds in roulette. So the most important roulette tip is to ignore all the strategies that promise grand fortunes. Don’t waste your time with score cards trying to track a pattern. The ball drops on numbers at random and the previous number cannot and will not influence the next.

Keep in mind that the average return that you can make on a roulette table is 97 per cent. This means that if you play 100 rounds at $1, you will on average win back only $97.

We do, however, make two recommendations. First, that you play European roulette over American roulette where the odds are better because European roulette has only one zero whereas American roulette has a double zero. European roulette therefore has a lower house edge. Secondly, that you learn all the different types of bets that can be placed to optimize your bankroll and maximise your enjoyment of the game.

And remember, whilst a straight up bet pays out 35 to 1, there is a reason for this – IT RARELY HAPPENS!

Roulette is purely a game of chance and luck so to have fun and relax, play with smaller chips, do not risk large sums of money and do not bet everything that you have on one spin.

A game begins with placing a bet on the different betting sections of the roulette table. Minimum and maximum limits are usually imposed by casinos.

The winning number and color is then determined by a croupier spinning a wheel in one direction, and then spinning a ball in the opposite direction on a stationary track around the edge of the roulette wheel. The ball eventually then loses speed and falls into one of the numbered pockets on the wheel.

The dealer will place a marker on the winning number on the roulette table. No more bets can then be made, collected or removed. All losing bets are swept away and the payouts are made.

Roulette tables have two betting areas – the inside betting area contains the individual numbers and the outside betting area has boxes for the columns, red/black and odd/even and different groups of numbers. So you need to chose between the inside bet where you bet on a certain straddle or on which number the ball will land and the outside bet where you bet on odd/even, black/red or the positional groupings of pockets.

Inside bet

Playing the numbers is easy. After you select which number to play, there are several more options open to you such as a:

• ‘straight up’ bet where you are playing only the number that you chose (this is the easiest bet)
• ‘split’ bet where you place the bet on two connecting numbers like 1 and 2 or 6 and 9
• ‘three line’ bet or ‘street’ bet where you bet on three numbers in a row like 4 through to 6 (European roulette features two special street bets: 0-1-2 and 0-2-3 whereas American roulette features three special street bets: 0-1-2, 0-00-2 and 00-2-3.)
• ‘corner’ or ‘square’ bet where you bet on four numbers
• ‘six line’ bet which is a double street.

Outside bet

You can cover a greater amount of numbers in a single bet by placing a bet outside the grid. The outside chances bet can be divided into two categories: those that pay 1 to 1 and those that play 2 to 1. You win the bet if the ball drops on a number within a field or category on which you have bet.

Outside bets include:

• ‘dozen bet’ where you bet on the first 12, second 12 or third 12
• ‘high’ or ‘low’ where you bet on 19 to 36 or 1 to 18
• ‘column’ bet you bet on any of the three columns of numbers
• ‘odd’ or ‘even’ bet where you bet on an odd or even number
• ‘red’ or ‘black’ bet where you bet on which colour.

Rules regarding zero and double zero

Bets can be placed on zero and double zero, just like any other number and the payout is the same. However, neither zero nor double zero, is included in any outside bet.

Payout

The payout for each type of bet, inside or outside, depends on its probability. Outside bets usually have considerably smaller payouts with better odds of winning. A greater amount of money can be won by placing a bet on a single number, that is, a straight bet.

In its more modern form, however, the tale of roulette’s history begins in France in 1655. Blaise Pascal, the famed mathematician and philosopher, created the first roulette wheel as part of his search to build a machine that would never lose momentum, a perpetual motion machine. Although he failed in this attempt, roulette history gained an unstoppable momentum of its own. For the next two centuries, the roulette wheel remained relatively unchanged from the original basic design created by Pascal.

Then in 1842, almost two centuries after Pascal, two French brothers, Francois and Louis Blanc, created the casino game we now know as roulette. They altered the composition of the roulette wheel to include the green zero pocket and numbered the pockets 1 to 36 and changed the colors of each pocket on the wheel to red and black. There is a legend that the brothers sold their souls to the Devil in exchange for these ideas, a myth that intends to explain why the sum of the numbers on the wheel totals 666.

During the nineteenth century, roulette spread across Europe and the United States. French settlers in New Orleans brought roulette with them and it became immensely popular and a common pastime. As the settlements expanded westwards, many makeshift saloons and gambling halls set up roulette tables for miners and cowboys eager to try their luck. Many casino roulette tables began to appear with an extra pocket in their wheel, to increase house odds, and this is the origin the ‘American Eagle’ or a green double zero (as is seen in most American casino roulette tables today).

On the European continent, the German government prohibited gambling in the 1860s and the last remaining casino was moved to Monte Carlo in Monaco which then became the gaming capital for elite society in Europe. Here, the single zero roulette became the premier game and spread across the globe except the United States where the double zero wheel remains dominant even to today.

Online roulette entered the internet in about the mid-1990s and quickly became as popular among players online as is in land based casinos.

French Roulette is played in exactly the same way as European Roulette (with only a single zero), however, there are a few rule variations, such as the rule of La Partage.

The French roulette layout

The French style roulette table has the wheel in the centre and a layout on either side and the entire board is red. However, half of the numbers, 1 to 36, are still considered black even they do not appear in black. It seems that the French simply prefer an all-red table. The numbers on the French roulette wheel still alternate black and red (like on all other roulette wheels).

The Rule of La Partage

For example, if you place an even money bet on a single number and the result is zero, you lose only half of your bet, not all of it, which is referred to as ‘the of rule of La Partage’. This rule provides a significant statistical advantage to a French roulette gambler.

Call Bets

There are also a number of bets that can be placed according to the numbers as they appear on the roulette wheel, rather than the roulette table which are known as ‘Call Bets’ or ‘Called Bets’.

These are the call bets available in French roulette:

• Voisins du Zero (Neighbors of Zero): A bet on the 17 numbers on the wheel that surround zero (including the zero) which are 0, 2, 3, 4, 7, 12, 15, 18, 19, 21, 22, 25, 26, 28, 29, 32, and 35.
• Tiers du Cylindre (Third of the Wheel): A bet on the 12 numbers that reside on the opposite side of the wheel from the zero which are 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 16, 23, 24, 26, 27, 30, and 33.
• Orphelins (Orphans): A bet on the remaining 8 numbers on the wheel that are not included in the previous two bets which are 1, 6, 9, 14, 17, 20, 31, and 34.
• Finales en Plein: A bet on all numbers that end in the same digit, for example, 3, 13, 23 and 33.
• Finales a Cheval: A bet on all numbers that end in any two chosen digits, for example, 3, 13, 23, 33, 4, 14, 24 and 34.

Dictionary of French roulette terms

Here is a glossary of the all the French terms you will need to play French roulette:

Pair: Even number

Impair: Odd numbers

Manqué: The low numbers 1 to 18

Passé: The high numbers 19 to 36

P-12 (Premiere 12): The first dozen (1-12)

M-12 (Moyenne 12): The middle dozen (13-24)

D-12 (Derniere 12): The last dozen (25-36)