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How to Play Roulette – Go from Newbie to Pro in Minutes

Roulette is one of the easiest games you can play at an online casino. Yet, beginners ask us how to play roulette every single day. To make it easy for you to start playing, we’ve decided to answer all your questions in an ultimate roulette guide for newbies.

By the time you’ve finished reading this page, you’ll know the basics of roulette inside out. Our experts will teach you everything from the different types of roulette bets that you can place to how to win at roulette. Our goal is to take you from a newbie to a pro in a matter of minutes, so let’s get started.

Basic Roulette Rules

You don’t need a degree in rocket science to play roulette online. It’s a very simple game. You place a bet on the roulette table based on how you predict the ball will land on the wheel.

Our step-by-step guide to playing roulette highlights just how easy it is to play a roulette game at online casinos.

Types of Roulette Bets

Before you play roulette online, it’s important to understand how the roulette wheel and betting table correspond. European and French roulette wheels contain 37 pockets for the ball to rest in. American roulette wheels have an extra pocket featuring a double zero. Numbers 1 to 36 are clearly labeled in red or black pockets, while zero pockets are green. Knowing this makes life easy when it comes to betting.

As you will see from taking a glance at the betting table, you can place many different roulette bets. These bets fall into two categories: inside bets and outside bets. Their names refer to where their bets are positioned on the table. Inside bets are placed within the rectangle that holds contains all the numbers, while outside bets are placed on the perimeter of the roulette table.

Inside Bets

Inside bets have larger payouts than outside bets because they are riskier. While the likelihood of you winning with such a bet is smaller, the roulette payouts on offer make them a tempting proposition.

  • Straight Up Bet: This is simply a bet on any individual number on the roulette table.

  • Corner Bet: A corner bet is when you place a chip on the cross-section of four numbers. An example of this would be the cross-section of 1, 2, 4, 5.

  • Split Bet: A split bet covers two numbers that are separated by a line.

  • 5-Number Bet: This is a bet on the numbers 0, 00, 1, 2, and 3 as a group. is one of the worst bets you can make when you play roulette online.

  • 6-Number Bet: A six-number bet works in a similar way to a street bet. The difference here is that you’ll be betting on two rows of three numbers.

  • Street Bet: Also known as a steam bet by many experts, a street bet is a bet on a row of three numbers.

Outside Bets

As outside bets involve less risk when compared to inside bets, they naturally pay less. Instead of betting on specific numbers, these bets see you place your chips on groups of numbers or colors.

  • Column Bet: A column bet covers one of the three columns of twelve numbers on the roulette table.

  • Dozens Bet: As its name suggests, a dozens bet also covers twelve numbers. This time, you’ll be betting on the numbers in order.

  • Odd or Even Bet: An odd or even bet is just as straightforward as it sounds.

  • Red or Black Bet: A red or black bet simply involves predicting what color you think the winning number will be. Just pray that you don’t hit a zero.

  • High or Low Bet: A high or low bet covers a group of numbers. As you can probably guess, a high bet covers the numbers 19-36. Betting on low covers the numbers 1-18. As with the red or black bet, a zero equals a loss.

Specialty Bets

Also known as called bets, the following three specialty bets are characteristic of European and French roulette games. Online casinos usually have special buttons that help you place these bets quickly.

  • Voisins du Zero: Translating to “Neighbors of Zero,” this nine-chip bet covers all 17 numbers that can be found between (and including) 22 and 25 on the roulette wheel.

  • Tiers du Cylindre: Translating to “Thirds of the Wheel,” this six-chip bet covers the 12 numbers on the opposite side of the roulette wheel. These are the numbers between (and including) 27 and 33.

  • Orphelins: Translating to “Orphans,” this five-chip bet covers the eight numbers that were left out of the Voisins du Zero and Tiers du Cylindre bets. These numbers are 17, 34, 6, 1, 20, 14, 31, and 9.

Minimum and Maximum Bets

Minimum and maximum bets vary depending on where you play roulette online. You will find plenty of roulette games that require a minimum bet of $5 or $10 to participate. Betting limits are naturally higher at major online casinos that aren’t affected by so much exposure. If smaller casinos didn’t have maximum bets in place, they would be in danger of going bust if high rollers hit a lucky streak.

European Roulette Vs American Roulette Vs French Roulette

Although there are many roulette variants to play on the web, these are the three main variations and the most popular at pretty much any casino. Let’s compare the key differences between them:

American Roulette

  • House edge of 5.26%
  • 38 pockets
  • Double zero

European Roulette

  • House edge of 2.70%
  • 37 pockets
  • Single zero

French Roulette

  • House edge of 2.70%
  • 37 pockets
  • Single zero

Play Roulette at Our Top-Rated Casinos for 2024

Now that you know how to play roulette, why not put your newfound knowledge to the test at our top online roulette casinos? These are the best sites to play roulette online for real money, as they have a superb selection of roulette games from the industry’s leading software providers and even roulette games at live dealer casinos.

How to Play Roulette – FAQs

Quite the opposite, in fact. Roulette is one of the easiest casino games that you can learn, especially if you read our guide to play roulette.

While the roulette table may seem confusing when you first see it, you’ll quickly realize that it’s all very straightforward. You just need to wrap your head around the difference between inside and outside bets. Helping you understand how all the different types of roulette bets work is one of the main reasons why we created this roulette guide. We take you from a newbie to a pro in a matter of minutes.

While roulette is simply a game of chance, placing sensible roulette bets increases your odds of winning.

Let’s face it, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll walk away with a profit if you only place a single straight up bet on every spin. Placing a single chip on your favorite number and crossing your fingers certainly isn’t a strategy that we’d recommend. Instead, you should stick to outside bets to give yourself a better chance of winning. Even money shots like red or black, odd or even, and high or low are your best bets.

Absolutely. We encourage all beginners to practice in demo mode when learning how to play roulette.

You can choose from more than a dozen free roulette games on our table games page. Simply select ‘roulette games’ from the dropdown box to filter the games lobby. We have demos for the main roulette variants like European, American, and French. You’ll also find some unique offerings, such as Astro Roulette by 1x2 Gaming and Monopoly Roulette Tycoon by SG Interactive.

Every online casino offers multiple roulette games. The big question is, which site is the best to play at?

This was a key factor in us deciding to create this guide. To play roulette online safely, you must stick to trustworthy casinos. We make your life easier when it comes to choosing between the hundreds of online casinos that claim to be the best. Our experts have inspected every online casino with a fine toothcomb. You’ll find several roulette variants to play when you join any of our recommended sites.

While the house will always come out on top in the long run, using a roulette system can help you win.

A roulette system simply indicates how much you should bet in certain situations. The Martingale system is perhaps the most famous roulette system in existence. Others you will come across as you start to take roulette more seriously include the Labouchere, Paroli, and D’Alembert systems. None of these systems guarantee that you’ll win, but they serve a purpose by giving you a solid plan to follow.

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