How to Win at Roulette

Roulette is a casino game named after a French word meaning "small wheel". In this game of chance, players place bets by attempting to select in advance which number or combinations of numbers will be chosen by the game as the winning number.

The game is a croupier a wheel in one direction and get a ball to spin in the opposite direction on a tilted circular surface surrounding the wheel. The ball eventually falls onto the wheel and into one of the 37 (in European roulette) or 38 (in American roulette) colored and numbered holes in the wheel. The numbers change between equal numbers of black and red squares, 18 of each, and 1 (European) or 2 (American) green fields, known as zeros

The game itself consists of participants making one or more "bet". A bet is as "Black," "Red," "Odd", "Right", or a combination of one or more numbers, and the payoff of each bet is calculated separately. If the roulette ball lands on a number other than the one selected by the player, then that bet loses. If however the roulette ball lands on a number selected by the player, then the player wins 36 times their bet. This is the highest possible payout on any single bet. Other combination of numbers pay different amounts. The amount of the payoff is directly related to the probability of successfully selecting the winning number.

Since there are between are either 37 or 38 numbers on the roulette wheel, there is a 1 in 37 or 1 in 38 chance of selecting of winning, placing a bet on an single number carries the greatest chance of loss (because there is the greatest chance that the roulette ball will land on one of the numbers that you have not picked) and therefore also results in the highest payoff if the roulette ball falls on the number bet on.

Other combinations of numbers are more likely to occur, and therefore carry less risk and result in lower winnings if the bet is successful.

Example: There are 18 black squares. If you bet on black, it means that you are actually betting on 18 out of the 37 or 38 numbers. The remaining numbers are 18 red and either 1 or 2 zeros (which are usually colored green), The zeros are neither black nor green and if you bet on a color, and a zero comes up, you lose your bet. Ignoring the zeros, for the moment, you have a one in two chance that the ball will fall on the number you selected. Thus: if the roulette wheel stops on black and you had bet on black, the payoff is 36/18 = 2 times your investment less your initial investment. So if you bet a dollar on black and black is the winning number, you will receive two dollars. Essentially you will have doubled your investment on winning bet.

But of course your actual odds of winning are not one in two or 50% because of the zeros which give the house a slight edge. In practice the zeros mean that no matter what color you bet on (either black or red) there will be more losing numbers than winning ones. So for example, if you bet on black, you will win if the ball roulette drops the ball on any of the 18 black numbers on the roulette wheel. But there are also 18 red numbers and at least 1 zero and possibly 2 zeros (depending on whether you are playing American or European roulette), so this means that there are slightly more losing numbers than winning numbers. Over time this small statistical edge generates great profits for the casinos.

Many people have tried to defeat the casino's built in advantage at roulette by developing roulette systems.

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