How to Play Roulette – Beginners' Guide

If you’re a complete roulette beginner, this quick guide will teach you all the basics you need to know to start playing roulette games at an online casino. Our Betiton Casino roulette guide will explain how to play European roulette and American roulette, how to understand the connection between odds and payouts, and the basic roulette terminology.

This how-to-play guide will also introduce you to the main roulette bet types and explain how the house edge works in this game. So, if you want to learn the basics of roulette before you play the game for real money at Betiton UK, you’ll find all the necessary information on this page.

The Objective of Roulette

The objective of roulette is simple: to predict where the roulette ball will land in the wheel once it’s spun. However, you don’t need to guess the exact number the ball will fall in to get a payout. Roulette is a game with vast bet types, so you can place various bets and still get a payout if the ball lands in the correct section of the wheel or within the right group type.

For example, you can try to guess the number or colour where the ball will land, but you can also attempt to predict whether the winning number will be odd or even or a low/high number. You can also bet on a whole section of the wheel, and if the ball lands anywhere within that section, you’ll win the bet.

Roulette Table

The roulette table is where players place their chips to make their bets. In online roulette, this is the part of the screen where you can place your virtual chips to start the game. The roulette table can also be referred to as the roulette layout.

The roulette table is split into two sections, one covering inside bets and the other covering outside bets. You can see the numbers on the wheel displayed in consecutive order here, with the same red and black colours matching the colour of the numbers on the wheel.

Roulette Wheel

The roulette wheel is a continuously spinning wheel with numbered pockets, coloured red and black, in an alternating pattern. The most common roulette wheel, the single-zero wheel, has 37 slots, numbered from zero to 36. There are also roulette wheels with an extra pocket with a double zero.

The numbers on the roulette wheel are in a random order. When the croupier throws the ball into the wheel, it eventually falls into one of the pockets. The dealer announces the colour and number of that pocket before removing the ball in preparation for the next round.

Roulette Terminology

Knowing the basic roulette terminology is another crucial step when learning how to play roulette at a casino. Once you’ve learned some of the most common terms used in this game, you can then move on to learning the rules of roulette and how to play the game step by step.

🎲 Roulette Term	📝 Description
👉 Action	The total bets placed in over one roulette session.
👉 Pocket	The slots in the roulette wheel where the ball can fall in.
👉 All-In	Betting your entire bankroll in one round, usually on the same bet. For example, betting all your chips on red.
👉 Marker or Dolly	The small object used by the croupier to mark the winning number. For example, if the winning number is 17, the croupier places the marker on top of that number on the table.
👉 Wheel Checks	This refers to the stack of chips given to the player when they join the game.
👉 Block Bet	A type of bet that covers a group of numbers on the wheel, such as the Orphelins bet.
👉 High Bet	An outside bet placed on the high numbers, i.e., the numbers from 19 to 36.
👉 Odds	The likelihood of a specific outcome occurring. For example, the odds of winning a single number bet in roulette are 2.70%.
👉 Black Action	A bet made with a £100-value chip (which is usually black).
👉 Bottom Track	The inner part of the roulette wheel where the ball is spun before falling into one of the slots.

Basic Rules of Roulette

You can learn how to play casino roulette by memorising a few very basic rules and actions involved in the game. Below, we’ve summarised the essential roulette rules you should know before attempting to play roulette.

• Bets are placed before the ball is spun in the roulette wheel.
• Multiple bets can be combined on the roulette table.
• The ball is spun in the wheel, and the dealer waits for it to fall into a slot.
• The dealer announces the winning number and colour.
• If you placed a successful bet, winnings will be immediately paid out.
• If your bet loses, you don’t receive a payout. The next round can begin once payouts are settled.

Roulette Variants

There are three variants of the classic roulette game that you might encounter when learning how to play the roulette wheel. Although the differences between these variants may seem minor, it’s important to understand what they mean so you can choose the most suitable roulette casino game.

European Roulette

The most common roulette casino game is the European version. The European roulette wheel is a single-zero wheel with 37 pockets, numbered zero to 36. This roulette game has a house edge of 2.70%.

American Roulette

The American roulette wheel is a double-zero wheel with 38 pockets. The numbers on the wheel also range from zero to 37, but there’s an additional slot labelled ’00’. Due to this extra slot, the house edge is 5.26%, making it a much less popular choice at online casinos.

French Roulette

French roulette is as popular as the European version, if not more. Players who understand the French roulette rules, particularly those that apply when the ball lands on zero, know that this version has the best odds for the player. With a house edge as low as 1.35% for even money bets, this variant is much more and offers even more bets to choose from.

Roulette Odds and Payouts

Although roulette is a game of chance, it’s always in your best interest to learn more about the odds and payouts of all the betting options. Understanding how the odds influence payouts and vice versa is also part of learning how to play roulette online.

Roulette Odds

expressed as a percentage, which is calculated according to the probability of an outcome. You don’t need to know how to calculate odds to learn how to play the roulette table, but it’s worth knowing how they’re calculated to understand them better.

Let’s take an example of an odd or even bet in European roulette. There are 18 odds numbers on this wheel, giving a probability of 18/37. If we divide these numbers and then multiply them by 100, we get odds of 48.64%.

Roulette Payouts

Part of your roulette strategy should involve making betting decisions by comparing the odds with the payouts for each bet type. Roulette bets with lower payouts have higher winning odds, while bets with bigger payouts have much lower winning probabilities.

The highest-paying bet in roulette is the straight up bet, which pays 35:1, with winning odds of 2.7%. As you can see, the likelihood of winning this bet is very low, especially compared to an even money bet offering 48.64% odds.

The House Edge in Roulette

The house edge or house advantage is the expected loss due to the casino’s advantage over the player. The house edge in a casino game is expressed as a percentage and can be used to choose the right games that will give you the best winning chances.

Due to some differences in the roulette wheels and bet types that exist, the house edge also varies according to the roulette variant. For example, when learning how to play American roulette, you’ll notice it has a much higher house advantage than the European version.

🎲 Roulette Variant	🫰 House Edge	💰 Expected Loss
American Roulette	5.26%	94.74%
European Roulette	2.70%	97.30%
French Roulette	1.35%	98.65%

Types of Bets in Roulette

Roulette bets can be grouped into two categories: inside bets and outside bets. These bets can be found in any roulette game, although there may be slight variations in some of the numbers covered. The next part of our how to play roulette guide will explain the bets in each category.

Roulette Inside Bets

Inside bets can be described as offering a chance at some big wins but having low winning probabilities. These are the bets that cover the whole inner part of the roulette layouts where all the numbers on the wheel are displayed. Inside bets have the best payouts in the game but are not nearly as likely to win as outside bets.

The inside bets in roulette are listed below:

• Straight up bet
• Split bet
• Street bet
• Corner bet
• Trio bet
• Line bet/Double Street
• Five Number/Basket bet (American roulette only)

Roulette Outside Bets

By contrast, outside bets provide significantly higher odds of winning, so they’re considered safer bets in the game. If you want to play roulette with a lower risk level, it’s better to aim for lower payouts that have more realistic winning odds. Most outside bets offer even money (1:1 payout), but some pay 2:1, which means you get a payout of twice the amount staked.

The roulette outside bets are listed below:

• Column bet
• Dozens bet
• Low/high numbers
• Even/odd numbers
• Red/black numbers

The Most Popular Roulette Strategies

Betting strategies can be used to play almost any casino game, but roulette tends to be the most popular one. While none of the known roulette strategies can influence the odds of winning or reduce the game’s house edge, learning how to play with roulette strategy can be useful for proper bankroll management.

Below are some of the most popular roulette strategies you may be interested in implementing the next time you play roulette:

• The Martingale Strategy
• The Reverse Martingale Strategy
• The Fibonacci Betting System
• The D’Alembert Betting Strategy
• The Andrucci Roulette Strategy
• The Paroli Strategy

FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions About How to Play Roulette