Roulette, a game that was first played in 17th century France, is today a very popular game throughout Europe. You will find that it is particularly “hot” in Monte Carlo.
The goal of the game is for the player to predict which slot on the roulette wheel the ball will fall into when the dealer (or croupier) spins the wheel. How the player makes this prediction is fairly random – much of it is a guessing game, and luck plays a major role in who wins. Some players, feeling that certain numbers are “winners” and are always coming up, will bet on those. Others, feeling that the numbers that HAVEN’T come up are the ones that are “due” to come up, will bet on those. Some players bet on multiple numbers which, while increasing their chances that ONE of those numbers will be hit, obviously decreases the payout. Then you’ve got your methodical players, who use various roulette and money management “systems.”
The game itself consists of up to eight players. These players play against the dealer, or “croupier” (aka: the “house”), who both spins the wheel and handles bets and payouts. The players buy color-coded chips – each player getting a different color so that bets won’t get mixed up – and at the end of the game the winners exchange these chips for cash chips (their value printed on them), which are then exchanged for REAL cash at the cashier’s desk.
The players place their bets. They do this by placing their color-coded chips on the numbers they want – the numbers appearing either on a table layout, or in printed sections outside the layout. After bets have been placed, the croupier spins the wheel and throws the ball. At a certain point, when he sees that the ball is about to drop, he will call, “No more bets,” and at that point players cannot place or change any of their bets. When the ball has finally come to its resting position in a particular pocket the croupier will place a dolly over the winning number and clear off the losing bets. The winners will be those people who placed bets on or around the winning number – outside bets on that number will also win. New bets can be placed while the winners are being paid.
There are two kinds of roulette wheels. The European (and French) version has 37 slots (i.e., a slot for each of 36 numbers plus one zero). The American version has 38 slots, because the American wheel includes a slot for the double zero. This one-slot difference has a definite impact on “house advantage.” For instance, the house has an advantage of only 2.7% when you’re playing on the one-zero wheel, and a 5.26% advantage when you’re playing on the double-zero wheel. The house advantage comes from the fact that the house pays winning players a chip or two less than what they are actually supposed to receive.
There are two rules – relevant only to even-money bets – whose purpose it is to cut the house’s advantage in half. One rule, called the “En Prison” rule, allows the player two options when the spin comes out on zero: either to remove half his bet, or to leave the whole bet for the next spin. If the next spin were to land on zero again, the whole bet would be lost. The “La Partage” rule does not give the option of leaving the bet there for the next spin, and the player loses half his bet. The “La Partage” rule is applicable when the spin lands on zero but only to the outside even-money bets (including Red/Black, High/Low, Odd/Even).
Not all casinos have the “En Prison” or the “La Partage” rule, but in those that do the house advantage is cut from 2.7 to 1.35, and for a double-zero wheel, from 5.26 to 2.63.
A straight-up bet – which is what a bet is called when you bet on a single number – has a payout of 35 to 1 (i.e., you get 36). Without a house advantage you would get 37 (or, if you were playing on an American double-zero roulette wheel, 38).
The rest of the payout scale looks like this: a) a two-number bet (“split bet”): 17 to 1, b) a three-number bet (“street bet”): 11 to 1, c) a four-number bet (“corner bet”): 8 to 1, d) a six-number bet (“line bet”): 5 to 1, e) an outside dozen bet (“column bet”): 2 to 1, f) an outside even money bet: 1 to 1.
There is very little to add regarding French roulette, since fundamentally it abides by the same rules as European roulette. One variation worth mentioning is that French roulette uses a different layout for outside bets. Other than that, it is the same (i.e., 37 possible slots, and therefore the same odds as for European roulette – odds which are better than for American roulette due to the double-zero slot). When the ball falls into the zero slot, the La Partage rule is in effect, which means half of even-money bets are lost.
For those of you who will be playing French roulette, you should know that the language spoken is French. Therefore you should know some basic French roulette terms. Here are the terms for various kinds of inside bets. The straight-up bet is “En plein.” The split-bet is “Cheval.” The street-bet is “Transversale.” The corner-bet is “Carre.” The line-bet is “Sixainne.”
Other terms (for outside bets) that you should familiarize yourself with are: a) “Colonne,” which refers to the twelve numbers in a column, b) “Douzaine,” which refers to twelve numbers or a dozen, c) “Rouge” which is a red, and “Noir” which is a black, d) “Pair” for an even, and “Impair” for an odd, and e) “Manque” for low numbers, and “Passe” for high.