You’ll find plenty of debate over the exact origins of roulette, with a variety of
different countries trying to claim 🧾 it as their own. However, despite all these
pretenders to the throne, it would seem that the game of chance 🧾 we all love so much
today began its life in 17th century France. Or rather, Paris. At that time and 🧾 in that
place, the game was known as the ‘little wheel’.
Yet just because this roulette game is
pretty much exactly 🧾 the same as we play today, that’s not the full story. It is
actually thought that the origins of roulette 🧾 go back further and that those who
created the ‘little wheel’ in Paris may have got the idea from a 🧾 game that had been
played for many centuries in ancient China. This particular game involved 37 animal
figurines that had 🧾 to be put together in a specific order to create a circle or, as you
might have guessed, wheel. Monks 🧾 brought this game to Europe, and it would appear that
Parisians evolved it into roulette. Or so the story goes 🧾 because, as with anything
popular that’s been around for many hundreds of years (maybe thousands), it’s never
easy to know 🧾 for sure.
Or perhaps it came from Rome. Roman soldiers would bet on
almost anything, and spinning chariot wheels were a 🧾 firm favorite. They would bet on
where the markers placed on the wheels would end up when the wheels stopped 🧾 turning.
Once more, this does sound familiar, and could easily be where roulette first
began.
Whatever the reason, whatever the true 🧾 story, by the time it reached Paris in
the 17th century, roulette had become a game for the elite. This 🧾 was not something
offered in a backstreet casino, full of dirt and grime and illegalities; this was for
the upper 🧾 classes and could be why roulette wheels still have an air of class and
sophistication about them today.
Roulette remained an 🧾 elitist game for about one
hundred years. It wasn’t until the 18th century when Monaco began to open up casinos
🧾 that roulette wheels became ubiquitous and everyone was able to play.
Over the years,
roulette has stayed the same, with the 🧾 world changing around it. Perhaps this is why
this game of chance is still so popular; it’s one of the 🧾 few things that everyone can
rely on to be exactly as it should be.
Roulette is played in casinos around the 🧾 world,
and no matter which version you play (either European roulette or American roulette –
more on the differences later), 🧾 free version or with real money, the rules aren’t going
to change from place to place. Regarding those rules, just 🧾 what are they? How do you
get started when it comes to roulette and what do you need to know? 🧾 Let’s look more
closely at this aspect of the game so that, when you want to play, you’ll have a 🧾 much
better understanding of what to do and what to expect.
The Wheel
Depending on the
type of roulette you are playing, 🧾 the wheel itself will have either 37 or 38 pockets,
and in each pocket a number will be written. Those 🧾 pockets will be alternately red and
black, apart from the zero pockets which are always green. Once everyone has placed
🧾 their bets, the croupier will spin the wheel in one direction and toss the small metal
ball in the other. 🧾 When the wheel stops spinning and the ball has landed in one of the
pockets, the round is over. Wherever 🧾 the ball landed, that’s the winning number or
color (depending on what you bet on).
The Table
Although the roulette wheel is 🧾 the
thing that most people think of when they bring this particular casino game to mind,
there is also a 🧾 roulette table. The table is placed by the side of the wheel, and on
it, all the numbers correspond to 🧾 the same numbers on the wheel. They are lined up in
three columns (apart from zero), and elsewhere on the 🧾 table, you will see the different
bets you can make before the wheel starts to spin. Use the table to 🧾 place your chips so
that the croupier or dealer knows what you’re betting on.
The Bets
So of course, when
playing roulette 🧾 the whole point is to try to guess where the ball is going to land. If
you guess right, you’ll 🧾 win a certain amount of money (how much exactly will depend on
how much you bet in the first place). 🧾 If you guess wrong, you’ll win nothing, but you
can have another try if you want to. There are essentially 🧾 two types of bet available
to a player in roulette – inside and outside bets. Each of these has its 🧾 own
subcategories, however, and it pays to understand what they all are and how they can be
used so that 🧾 you can make the most of the opportunities you have, and make your
gambling money go as far as possible.
Inside 🧾 Bets
1 Straight Bets
A straight bet is
a simple thing to master but isn’t something that everyone is going to want 🧾 to attempt.
A straight bet means choosing the exact number you think the ball will land on. To
place this 🧾 bet, lay a chip (or chips) on the number on the roulette table that
corresponds to the number you hope 🧾 will be lucky. For wins on this kind of bet, the
payout is 35-1.
2 Split Bets
A split bet means that 🧾 you choose to bet on two numbers.
They must be next to one another on the roulette table, and to 🧾 place this bet you will
want to lay a chip (or chips) on the line between the two numbers. If 🧾 you are lucky
with either of the numbers you choose, you’ll win at 17-1.
3 Street Bet
A street bet,
also known 🧾 as a three-number bet or trio bet, is similar to a split bet only, as the
name suggests, you will 🧾 be betting on three numbers rather than two. Each row on the
roulette table contains three numbers, so you place 🧾 your chip (or chips) on the outside
line of the row you’re aiming for. Win with any of these numbers 🧾 and you’ll get a
payout of 11-1.
4 Corner Bet
The corner bet can be called the four number bet or the
🧾 square bet, and it means you are betting on four adjacent numbers. Place your chip (or
chips) in the middle 🧾 of the square of four numbers you are hoping will win, and if any
of them is where the ball 🧾 lands, you’ll receive winnings at 8-1.
5 Other Bets
After
the corner bet, it is possible to place five number bets and 🧾 the six-line bet. These
both payout at 6-1.
Outside Bets
6 Red or Black
The choice between red or black might
be one 🧾 of the most famous in gambling history, and it all stems from the roulette
wheel. Rather than opting for a 🧾 specific number when choosing what to bet on, you can
choose instead to pick either red or black. If you 🧾 look at the roulette table, you can
see boxes that indicate these choices, and to place that bet you simply 🧾 have to pay
your chip (or chips) on the right word. The payout here is much lower than it would 🧾 be
if you opted for a specific number at 1-1.
1 Odd or Even
As with the choice between
red or black, 🧾 picking either odd or even is a much ‘safer’ bet. Of course, it’s still a
50/50 choice, but there is 🧾 a much higher chance of getting your guess right. Again, you
simply place your chips (or chips) on the corresponding 🧾 word (odd or even) on the
roulette table. The payout is 1-1.
1 Low or High
To really make yourself have the 🧾 best
chance of winning something rather than nothing (although, of course, nothing is going
to be guaranteed when it comes 🧾 to a casino game), you can choose between ‘low’ or
‘high’ (again, depicted on the roulette table). If you choose 🧾 high, you’ll win if the
ball lands anywhere between numbers 19 to 36. A low bet means any number between 🧾 1 and
18. If the ball lands on zero, you lose. The payout for this is 1-1.
Here on Slots-777
you 🧾 can play Roulette for free, but these rules don’t change. You can experience the
real Roulette game without spending real 🧾 money and deepen your knowledge.
If you
thought that roulette was roulette no matter where you played it, think again. There
🧾 are two variations on the game; European roulette and American roulette. You can find
both versions in our free casino 🧾 games catalog and practice roulette online. Let’s look
more closely at these games and the differences between them. Although the 🧾 difference
might be a small one, it could mean a lot when you’re placing your bets, so it’s wise
to 🧾 know which version you’re playing before you make any decisions.
The main
difference between the two versions of roulette is that 🧾 American roulette has an extra
pocket on the wheel, giving 38 segments instead of the standard 37 that European
roulette 🧾 has. The extra pocket is ‘00’ or double zero.
Although you might not think
it, this extra pocket changes the odds 🧾 of the game quite dramatically, which is why
European roulette is the more popular of the two types. When you’re 🧾 playing American
roulette, your odds of winning are 1/38. The odds in European roulette are 1/37. Plus,
the house edge 🧾 is much higher in American roulette (the house edge is the casino profit
for any game, and it is expressed 🧾 as a percentage of the player’s original bet). In
American roulette, the house edge is 5.26%. Compare this to the 🧾 2.70% for European
roulette, and you’ll immediately see what a difference that one extra pocket makes.
On
top of all this, 🧾 the payouts are the same in American roulette and European roulette,
meaning that although the odds of winning are lower 🧾 in American roulette – something
that usually means a higher payout if you were to win because of the additional 🧾 risk
involved – you’ll win the same amount as if you played the ‘easier’ (in relative terms)
European roulette.
Although it’s 🧾 fun to watch roulette and see what other players are
choosing to do, the real fun lies in betting on 🧾 numbers yourself and getting involved
in the gambling. Of course, it’s always recommended that you have a set budget when
🧾 you’re playing casino games – playing without one can lead to accidental overspending
which is easy to do and not 🧾 so easy to claw back from afterwards.
When you are betting
on roulette there are a few different strategies that can 🧾 be used to make the process
easier to remember and to give you a structure to what you are doing. 🧾 It’s perfectly
possible to just bet on random numbers with random amounts of money, and if that’s what
you want 🧾 to do then that’s absolutely fine. But if you want something that has some
kind of meaning behind it, read 🧾 on; here are the three most popular betting systems for
roulette. Remember, though; roulette is a game of luck, and 🧾 there is no way to
guarantee a win even if you do opt for one of the betting systems mentioned 🧾 below.
The
Martingale System
The Martingale system is a betting strategy that many people will
have at least heard of, even if 🧾 they’ve never used it or don’t know what it entails.
It’s a simple premise, but don’t let that fool you 🧾 – it will take some thinking about
before you use it in a real game of roulette.
The Martingale system can 🧾 actually be
used on any game that offers a 50/50 chance of success, which is why it’s often used in
🧾 roulette (assuming you’re picking one of the outside bets, that is). Of course,
technically, even the outside bets aren’t purely 🧾 50/50 since the green zero (or zeros)
skew this a little, but for the purposes of the Martingale system, it’s 🧾 close
enough.
When using the Martingale system, you need to double your bet every time you
lose if you’re playing on 🧾 a 50/50 outside bet (red or black, odd or even, high or low).
The idea behind this is that you’ll 🧾 eventually win even if you lose several times
beforehand, and because you’re doubling your bet, you’ll make your money back 🧾 and then
some.
Technically, according to the law of probabilities, you are sure to win when
playing roulette – eventually. So 🧾 technically, the Martingale system is a good idea.
You’ll cover everything you previously lost, make some money and top, and 🧾 then you can
stop playing. There are problems, however. If you’re doubling your bet every time you
lose, how many 🧾 times can you afford to lose before you have to walk away before the win
you were waiting for came? 🧾 Remember, there are often betting limits for roulette, so
you might not win in time, and you’ll lose a lot 🧾 of money in this situation without any
chance of winning it back.
The Anti-Martingale System
If you’re not a fan of the
🧾 Martingale system because, although it gives you a structure, it also gives you a big
chance of losing a lot 🧾 of money, then you might want to consider the anti-Martingale
system. As you might have guessed, this system was created 🧾 because there was a lot of
bad feeling about the Martingale system for the reasons outlined above.
The
anti-Martingale system isn’t 🧾 completely against the original though; it does take
elements of it and changes them though, and for some, this is 🧾 a better way of working.
You still keep betting every time you lose, but instead of doubling your bet, in 🧾 the
anti-Martingale system, you halve it. If you win, you double your bet. Keep going until
you run out of 🧾 money, reach the money you wanted to win, or otherwise think it’s time
to step away.
Betting On Red
If you’re looking 🧾 for a simple betting system that can
work on a game of roulette, betting on red might be the one 🧾 to opt for. This is not as
complicated as some of the other betting systems, and it’s often regarded as 🧾 the
simplest one to master. The name pretty much tells you everything you need to know
about this system; you 🧾 always bet on red. Or black. Or odds. Or even. You can pick any
of the 50/50 bets you like, 🧾 but the point is, you always choose the same one. That’s
it. It really is that simple, and the idea 🧾 behind it is that, as ever, eventually, your
guess will prove to be fruitful.
