Roullete is a table game that’s easy enough for novice players to learn, but offers a surprising depth of strategy for serious betters. With a few tricks, it can be one of the most profitable games in any casino.
A whirling wheel with colored compartments, each of which holds either a red or black number, plus two zero pockets (or on American wheels, the equivalent of one and a half zeros). The roulette wheel is made up of a solid, slightly convex disk, around which are metal separators called frets, which form thirty-six compartments painted alternately red and black, and numbered nonconsecutively from 1 to 36. In addition, there is a green compartment with a sign 0 on European-style wheels and two green compartments with signs 0 and 00 on American-style ones.
The wheel is spun by the croupier and the ball, containing a magnetic core, is released from an opening at the bottom of the wheel. As the wheel spins, the magnet pulls the ball to an area adjacent to the number on which bets have been placed. If the ball stops there, the bet is a winner.
There are several ways to place bets in a roulette game, including wagering on individual numbers, various groupings of numbers, the colors red and black, whether the number is high (19-36) or low (1-18), and so on. In addition, a player can make a bet on a single column of 12 numbers (known as a dozen), which pays out at odds of 2-1.
Before you play, it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with the different betting options and rules. Each player gets a special color of chips, which helps them separate their winning from losing bets. When a bet is won, the winnings are collected by the dealer and the remaining loser bets are removed from the table. The dealer then gives the winning player normal casino chips to keep for his or her next decision.