Roulette Beginner Guide: The Basic Rules

The three most common variations of Roulette you are likely to encounter, whether in a real-world or online casino environment, are American, European and French. We'll explain the rules of the classic European game first, after which we'll focus on the modifications to these rules that define the American and French game.

European Roulette

The fundamental decision for any Roulette player is how they want to bet on the outcome of a spin. The Roulette table offers a wide variation of bet options, allowing the player to allocate different value bets to individual numbers or predetermined clusters of numbers. These bets can be removed or modified at anytime up until the table is closed for betting immediately before the spin commences. As previously mentioned in this section's Overview, the type of bet made affects the payoff achieved if it correctly predicts the outcome of the spin.

Set out below are the main bets available on the table, together with the odds attached to that bet:

On the traditional European table you'll also see an oval area marked on the baize, aptly called the Racetrack, which is segmented to copy the sequence of 37 numbers as they appear on the wheel itself. Here you can place bets, called ‘Neighbour' or ‘Voisin' bets, that allow you to quickly lay several Straight bets across a cluster of numbers that ‘neighbour' each other on the wheel.

So what's the green ‘0' on the Roulette wheel for? Well, this affects Outside Bets as the zero is not available to these choices. The zero rule of European Roulette is that if this is the outcome of a spin all the evens Outside Bets are lost.

French Roulette

The important difference from European Roulette with this variation is the operation of the zero rule on this table. Here the players of evens Outside Bets will only lose half their wager if the outcome of the spin is a ‘0', which gives this Roulette the lowest house edge on its Evens Bets. This rule is known as ‘La Partage'.

American Roulette

The significant difference to be found at the American Roulette table is the addition of a ‘double zero' to the numbers on the wheel and the absence of the Racetrack on the baize that makes playing Neighbour bets a little more involved.

With two zero pockets on the wheel (‘0' and ‘00') the odds on American Roulette are less favourable to players than European Roulette, however it is common for the usual zero / double zero rule to operate like French Roulette in that only half an evens Outside Bet is lost on this outcome.

The other difference to note that results from the wheel's inclusion of the ‘double zero' slot is that American Roulette has a further Inside Bet choice called the Five Bet. This bet covers the cluster of number ‘0','00','1','2' and ‘3' at the top of the Inside Bet layout and offers odds of 6 to 1.

Going to Prison

A final variation of the classic European rules you may encounter at some casinos is another modification of the ‘zero rule' applied to the evens Outside Bets. Where the En Prison rule is applied at a Roulette table, these bets are held over for the next spin (hence ‘in prison') if a zero is the outcome. Should the next spin also produce a zero those bets will then be lost.