Before betting our money on any game, it is essential to know well the rules that govern it, and roulette is no exception. Furthermore, when there are three versions of a game such as the French roulette, the European roulette and American roulette three games that, although they share origins and mechanism, each have their own idiosyncrasies. That is why we offer you this guide with the rules of roulette, where you will find all the necessary information to enjoy the game.
At a roulette table we can find up to 8 players, something that obviously only occurs in land-based casinos. However, each player competes against the dealer, not against the rest of the players, so that the gaming experience in an online roulette is identical to that of the physical casino: it is you against the dealer, the representative of the bank. In live roulette we can share a table with other players, with whom we communicate through chat, but we also play against the dealer. The presence of other players does not affect your bets.
In French roulette, chips of value are usually used, which are also valid in other casino games , while European and American roulette often use colored chips that allow differentiating the bets of each player. In online casinos this is secondary, but when we play physical roulette it is very important. The use of colored and value chips is becoming more and more common , which allow a player to place bets of different amounts without their bets being confused on the table with those of other players.
How to play roulette
The roulette table is made up of two elements, the roulette itself and the betting mat or cloth. The roulette wheel will have 37 numbers or 38 and the objective is to predict where the metallic ball that the dealer will throw will land. To do this, the player must place their betting chips on the table, divided into different cells to bet on numbers, columns, dozens, red / black, odd / even, pass / miss, etc. When we play in a physical casino or live roulette, the dealer marks the start of the game by shouting Place your bets. It is the moment we have to place our chips on the table according to the type of bet we plan to make. We can place chips until the dealer says No more bets. The metallic ball is then thrown and, depending on the number on which it stops, the bet is a winner and the dealer pays you your winnings or is a loser and removes the chips, in addition to marking the last winning number.
In online roulettes the mechanism is slightly different, since being alone gives you all the time in the world to place your bets on the table. As there is no croupier, only a random mechanism, the online roulette player is the one who decides when the ball is thrown into the roulette wheel, at which point he cannot add more bets to the table. Once the bet is resolved, it is paid if it is a winner or the round ends. The winning number is usually added to the list with the latest results.
Roulette special rules
Although the mechanism of the game is the same in the different versions of roulette, depending on whether you play French, European or American roulette there are a series of special rules that will be applied in each of them. They are rules that apply when the ball lands on 0 or 00, the green number which, in addition to being neither red nor black, is not even or odd and neither does it allow us to resolve the default / pass bets. We talked about the Le Partage, In Prison and Surrender rules, which have a great effect on the game and your chances of victory.
Le Partage: rule that is usually applied in French roulette when the ball lands on 0 to resolve single bets. Literally partage means shared or on both sides and that is what happens with the bet the player recovers half of the bet, while the other half is for the bank.
In Prison: version of Le Partage that is usually used in European roulette to solve simple bets when the ball lands on 0, although it is somewhat more complex. The croupier marks the bet, which is in prison, and the players return to make their bets. If in the next round the bet in prison is a winner, the player recovers the amount bet but not the winnings that should be derived from that winning bet if you are a loser, you definitely lose your bet.
Surrender: rule that exists in some American roulettes and that, like Le Partage, returns to the player half of the outside bets when the ball lands on 0 or 00 . The original American roulette game does not contemplate this rule, which offers an extra advantage to the player, so not all American roulette wheels use the Surrender rule.