How to Play Roulette

Learn to play roulette and you'll be playing one of the few casino games where the odds lean toward your favor.  Playing roulette involves picking the number and/or color on the wheel that will come up on the next spin. Though this may seem simple, roulette is not always quite as easy as it first appears.

The first thing you should become familiar with is the wheel and the roulette betting area. The roulette wheel has 38 numbers ranging from 00-36. The roulette betting area has individual numbers which are set up in 3x12 rows. The outside betting area has boxes for the columns, colors and whether the numbers will be odd or even.

To buy in to a roulette game, you must get special roulette chips; each player is assigned a designated color. Roulette tables have a minimum and a maximum bet, which you must abide by. You can only place a bet on a number once the dealer has removed the marker from the previous number.

You can make both inside and outside bets when playing roulette. With an inside bet, you can play one number or straddle a line between two numbers. An outside bet means you place a bet in the boxes around the numbers.

There are a few inside and outside bets you should be familiar with. Straight up is one of them. This is an inside bet and will net you a pretty nice return, paying 35 to 1 if you choose the correct number. Of course, picking the right number is difficult. A split bet is a bet you can make on two numbers and the payout is roughly half, paying 17 to 1.

Two outside bets to be familiar with are betting on the color (red or black) and whether the number will be odd or even. These are even money bets.

Unlike other games at the casino, you must cash in your roulette chips before leaving the table.