A American roulette table has a spinning wheel with 38 slots or pockets. The slots are numbered from 1 to 36 and colored red or black. Two special pockets, "zero" and "double zero", are designated by the color green. Players bet on a single condition or a group of conditions that the round will end with. The roulette wheel is spun and a ball is thrown into it against the direction of spinning. When the ball settles down and rests in a slot, the number on the slot that has caught the ball, is the winner. All slots are identical and the numbers are mathematically arranged for even distribution by color, value, odd or even, and high or low, so the ball has an equal probability to end up in any of them.
The more complicated part of roulette is betting. The betting table consists of 2 portions, the "Inside" portion and the "Outside" portion. Bets made on the inside portion are called inside bets. Similarly, bets made on the outside portion are called outside bets.
Roulette tables have maximum and minimum table limits. Otherwise, players are not limited in betting. Other than in betting, there are no other rules in roulette. Once the bets are made and the wheel has spun, there are no further choices that players make.
When betting on the "inside", a player is required to make bets that at least add up to the table's minimum.
The table is comprised of colored squares marked with red and black, from 1 to 36. Zero and double zero, referred to above, are 2 additional green squares of the inside table.
Different combinations of bets are available on the inside table. Combinations are only valid within the inner table. Here comes the list:
- Straight up bet - This is a bet on a single number. The payoff is 35-to-1.
- "Split bet - This allows you to place a bet on 2 contiguous squares. The odds here are 17-to-1.
- Street bet - This type of bet permits you to bet on an entire row (i.e., 3 numbers). The betting indicator must be placed on the row's outer edge. Odds here are 11-to-1.
- Line bet - This type of bet permits you to make 2 street bets (i.e., 6 numbers), and pays off at 5-to-1.
- Corner bet - This bet permits you to bet on 4 adjacent squares. Corner bets (known as "corners") pay 8-to-1.
- Five bet - This is a special type of bet that permits you to bet on 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3. You do this by placing your marker on the boundary line of the roulette table where the line dividing the 2 rows intersects it. This type of bet pays 6-to-1. Notice that this type of bet is specific to American Roulette only.
When betting on the "outside", every bet a player makes must at least match the table minimum.
"Zeroes" are not covered on Outside bets. Online casinos do not normally offer the surrender rule.
The type of Outside bets include:
- Dozens - This bet refers to 3 squares that gives results from 1-to-12, 13-to-24 and 25-to-36. 2-to-1 payoff. This is a double bet.
- High and low - With this bet, 2 squares for the bottom half of the numbers (1-to-18, and 19-to-35) are selected. 1-to-1 payoff - this is an even bet.
- Colours - This bet has 2 squares for red and black outcomes. This is also an even bet.
- Odd and even - This bet has 2 squares representing odd and even outcomes respectively. This too, is an even bet.
- Columns - With this bet, 3 squares are selected that are attached to the bottom of the inside table. Columns typically have "2:1" written inside the square. With these types of bets, you can bet on an entire column of numbers. This is a double bet.
