Roulette is a casino game of chance in which players place bets on the number or groupings of numbers that will appear when a small ball drops from a revolving wheel. Bets are made by placing chips on a betting mat, the precise placement of which indicates the bet being placed. The ball then spins around the wheel and, if the player’s bet is a winner, it will drop into one of the compartments numbered 1 to 36 in a random sequence. A European roulette wheel has a single red and black numbered compartment while an American version has two green ones labelled 0 and 00.

Unlike the games of poker or blackjack, in which bets are made against other players, all bets in roulette are against the house. This is because the house edge (the probability that the house will win) in roulette is 2.70% when using the La Partage rule and 1.35% without it. It is the only gambling game where the house has a mathematical advantage over the player.

The Roulette wheel consists of a solid wooden disk slightly convex in shape and with metal partitions or frets that separate the compartments. Thirty-six of these compartments, painted alternately red and black, are numbered from 1 to 36. A 37th compartment, painted green, carries the sign ‘zero’ on European wheels while on American ones two green compartments, labelled ‘0’ and ’00’, are positioned on opposite sides of the wheel. The whole wheel is balanced perfectly on its spindle and the roulette ball, a hard-wound metal ball about the size of a golf ball, slides easily along the grooves of the track and comes to a stop with little friction.

Once the wheel and ball have come to rest, the dealer announces ‘no more bets’. This prevents players from making additional bets as the ball is about to fall into a compartment and, in particular, helps to prevent cheating.

Before you begin playing Roulette, choose a table within your budget and familiarize yourself with the betting rules. Each roulette table carries a placard explaining the minimum and maximum bet amounts allowed. Most tables will have a $5 minimum inside bet and a $1,000 maximum outside bet. In addition, some tables will have specific rules, such as ‘La Partage’, which splits even-money bets in half, keeping half for the house and giving the other back to the player. The odds of winning a bet vary between bet types, but bets on the odd and even numbers tend to have better odds than those on individual numbers.