All bets are paid before the next spin, and all new bets must be made before the next spin. However, players can often continue to make bets right up to just before the white ball drops down and starts bouncing around the spinning wheel, which the croupier will indicate by calling out "no more bets". Roulette is also the only casino game, apart from reel slots, where players are mere spectators and can make no decisions to affect the outcome of the game.

When you approach a Roulette table, the first thing you do is change your money into Roulette gaming chips. Unlike gaming chips used in all other table games, Roulette gaming chips show no denominational value. In all the other table games, if you buy a $5 chip you will get a red chip with "$5" printed on it. When you buy Roulette chips, the value of each chip is determined either by the value you specify each such chip to have, or automatically by the value corresponding to that table's minimum betting requirement.

For example, say the table minimum is 50-cent chips. This means that if you change $20, and do not specify the value of the Roulette chips, the croupier will automatically give you 40 gaming chips, each of which has a value of 50 cents. However, you can specify the value of these chips.

If instead of 50-cent value you wanted each chip to have a value of $1, all you have to do is ask the dealer for "twenty dollars in $1 chips, please." By doing this you are increasing the value of the Roulette chips from the table's minimum. You can specify that the chips you buy have any value from the table minimum up to $5 each. If you specify $5 value chips, then you will get the red chips with the $5 value printed on them. These are the same chips you will normally get in all the other table games. If you intend to bet $25 chips, or $100 chips, then the same applies.

The reason for this system is because most Roulette players will only bet $1 chips, or chips of lesser values. Of course, this does not prevent you from stacking the chips up. Even if you bought $20 in 50-cent chips, and decided to bet them all on the one number, it would be perfectly okay to do so. In that case you would just stack them all up one on top of the other, on the number you want to bet.

If you do this the dealer may suggest that you simply bet four red $5 chips instead, but it makes no difference to the game. In fact no one will bother you or question any of your decisions. All the casino requires is that you make at least the minimum bet, and from that point on if you want to bet a sky-high stack of chips it's fine by them.

Most Roulette tables in Nevada and New Jersey casinos will be at the $1 minimum value. Several casinos will also offer the 50-cent version, and a few even a 25-cent minimum. You must remember that winning amounts are calculated based on a $1 bet. So, if the value of your chips is 50-cents, any win you get will be half in total value of the amount you would have won if you bet the $1 standard. For 25-cent chips this will be 1/4 of that value.

Since Roulette chips don't have their value printed on them, the dealer tells them apart by colors. If there are three players at the table, in addition to you, and all buy in for $20 worth of $1 chips, the dealer wouldn't be able to tell them apart if they were all one color. $1 chips used in the other table games in the casino are all the same color, usually cream, or off-white. If all the four players at this Roulette table had them, how could the dealer, or the players themselves for that matter, tell who won?

In this example, you can receive your chips in, say, blue, the second player in yellow, the third in brown and the fourth player in green. This then tells you apart. The colors themselves do not matter. If you win, your colored chip will designate you as the winner, and you will be paid with chips of the same color. As long as you play at this same table, the color designated to you will be yours.

Bets in Roulette can be made in a variety of ways, and are generally divided into two groups: "Inside" and "Outside". Inside bets are any bets made inside the numbered grid on the layout, and outside bets are those made outside this grid. For example, a bet on the number 10 will be an inside bet, while a bet on Red will be an outside bet. The basic differences between inside and outside bets lie in how much you can bet and how much you can win. Table limits for inside bets are, generally, $1 minimum and $100 maximum straight up on any single number, and up to $2,500 in overall spread, while limits on the outside bets are generally $5 minimum and $5,000 or more maximum. Inside bets pay more, but are harder to win on. Outside bets pay less, but win more frequently.

Roulette provides the House with a steady 5.3% edge over the player. This edge is constant on all bets at every spin of the wheel. It can be so constant because each new spin of the Roulette wheel is a new event. Neither the wheel nor the ball remember any past events, and therefore Roulette is among the very few games that allows for such steady House wins. This House edge is derived from the use of the 0 and 00 House numbers; since there are 38 total numbers which can become the winning number, but only 36 upon which players can bet, it is pretty clear how this comes about.

This is different for European Roulette, which only employs the single 0; in this game the House edge is only 2. 7% overall. Unlike other table games, players at Roulette have no opportunity to reduce this House advantage, such as taking full odds in Craps or playing Basic Strategy and counting cards in Blackjack. But although this information is quite important to the game aficionado, for casual play this really makes little difference.

Nevertheless, it is important that you know what you're giving up when approaching Roulette, more so to realize the odds against you; this, however, shouldn't deter you from playing Roulette since there are indeed some bets which can be very profitable in the short term.

These sections were written by Victor Royer
www.vegas.com

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