How to Play Roulette
Roulette is a casino and gambling game (Roulette is a French word meaning "small wheel"). A croupier turns a round roulette wheel which has 37 or 38 separately numbered pockets in which a ball must land. The main pockets are numbered from 1 to 36 and change between red and black, with number 1 being red. In addition there is a pocket numbered 0 of green color. In most roulette wheels in the United States but not in Europe, there is a second zero compartment marked 00, also colored green.
If a player bets on a single number and wins, the payout is 35 to 1. The bet itself is returned, so in total it is multiplied by 36. (In a lottery one would say 'the prize is 36 times the cost of the ticket', because in a lottery the cost of the ticket is not returned additionally.)
A player can bet on numbers, combinations, ranges, odds/evens, and colors.
Types of Roulette
Generally, there are two types of roulette, the American roulette and the European roulette. The basic rules of the game are the same in both, the main difference being that in American roulette there are two "green numbers", zero and double-zero, thus increasing house odds, whereas in European roulette there is only the zero. There is also a difference in using chips in the two versions; American roulette uses so-called "non-value" chips, meaning that all chips belonging to the same player are of the same value determined at the time of the purchase, that all chips belonging to one player are of the same value, and the player has to cash in the chips at the roulette table. European roulette uses standard casino chips of differing values as bets, which can make the game a more confusing for both the croupier and the players.
In traditional European roulette, the table is also much larger than in the American version, and the croupier uses a long tool called a rake to clear out the chips and to distribute winnings, whereas in American roulette the croupier does this by hand.
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