Online Roulette – How to Play Online Roulette
If you are not familiar with the myriad of games possible in a casino, then the only time you will have interacted with the term roulette is through mass media. This can be books, movies, video games that are fond of a deadly game known as Russian Roulette.
This is not that kind of roulette, instead, this is one of the most popular games you will ever come across in a casino. Even if you are not aware how it is played, you have come across videos of a spinning red wheel with numbers at the edge of the wheel.
That is a physical representation of how the game is played, but do you want to make sense of it and play roulette online?
How to get started with roulette
Roulette is a French word meaning small wheel. This wheel has numbers on the edges and pockets just below the numbers. In essence, what the casino croupier will do is they will spin this roulette in one direction, say clockwise. They will then spin a ball in a counterclockwise motion.
Once this ball loses momentum, it will be forced through a deflector, which in turn will direct the ball towards one of the pockets on the wheel. These pockets are numbered and when the ball settles into one of these numbered pockets, the bet is said to be complete.
You will need to take five steps if you are going to play roulette. These are;
- Choosing the type of game you are going to be playing. More on this further in the article.
- You will then place your bets.
- Once the bet is confirmed, the roulette will begin spinning.
- When the ball loses all momentum, it will come to a rest underneath one of the numbers.
- If the ball rests on a number or a color that you had placed a bet on, you will have won.
The types of Roulette.
Like every other casino game out there, there are iterations of this game that you can choose from.
The European Roulette Layout.
This is the most common type of roulette layout, and by far the best for beginners to learn the ropes of how to play roulette. The roulette wheel has 37 pockets with one of them being a 0. The other numbers range from 1 to 10, and then 19 to 28. The thing to not is that these numbers are not laid out numerically. Here is an example of the sequence on the wheel. 0-35-15-19-4-21-2.
You get the point.
American Roulette Layout.
Trust America to deviate from the standards already set by the world. And no, the Space Program did not land on the moon with Imperial units. NASA utilizes the metric system. End of rant.
Anyway, like any other sport or game out there, America chose to modify the roulette wheel to make it more to their style. In this case, another zero was added onto the list of numbers. Instead of the 37 that the European has, it has 38, with two zeros on the wheel.
This has the effect of raising the edge for the house to 5.26 percent, which is much higher than what the European version has.
Types of Bets possible with roulette.
There are different types of bets possible with the roulette wheel. These are divided into inside and outside bets. These two categories are further subdivided into other types of bets. Let’s take a look at the bets possible from each of the two categories.
Inside Bets.
An inside bet is usually made on the outcome of the roll on the numbers of the wheel. In general, it is much more difficult to win with these types of bets, but they also tend to pay out higher. The types of inside bets include:
- Straight up: This is a simple bet where you place your chip on the single number you feel the ball is going to rest on. You have a 2.7 percent chance to win this type of bet.
- Split: Also quite simple bet. You have to place a chip on two consecutive numbers on the table. To place this bet, you place your chip on the line splitting the two numbers.
- Street: This is also called a trio bet and your aim is to see whether the ball will stop on the numbers you think it will. You have an 8 percent chance of getting a win.
- Corner: This is a bet on four numbers, where you will place chips on the numbers that you feel will win. You have a 10 percent chance of getting a win.
Outside Bets.
The roulette table is not made up of the wheel and number only. The numbers on the table are surrounded by a field of color, either black or red. Because of the relative ease with which one can win an outside bet, the payouts tend to be lower. Some of the outside bets include;
- Red/black: This is a simple bet to determine whether the ball will land on either a red or black number. All you will need to do is to place your chip on either the red or black section. You have a 48 percent chance of winning with this type of bet.
- Even/Odd: This one should be quite obvious. Numbers are divided into even and odd numbers. When you are placing this type of bet, you are betting that the ball will come to rest on either an odd or an even number. As with the previous bet, you have a 48 percent chance of claiming this bet.
- High/Low: As you had already seen earlier, there are 37, or 38 different numbers on the roulette wheel. With this bet, you will be taking a chance on whether the ball will land on a low space number (1-18) or go to a higher space number (19-36). If the ball comes to a stop within the range you had settled for, you will be deemed to have won. You have a 46 percent chance of emerging the winner with this type of bet.