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How to play Roulette: a guide for absolute beginners

Written By:

Ben Bradley
how to play roulette

If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at the ultimate game of chance and see if you can bag yourself a win at the casino, but don’t know where to start, then you’ve come to the right place. Whether you choose to play online Roulette, or at your local brick-and-mortar establishment, taking a seat in front of the shiny wheel can be daunting. But fear not, because in this article we will take a look at everything you need to know about playing Roulette for the first time.

Read on to find out more!

Choosing the table

When choosing which game of Roulette to play, there are a couple of things you’ll want to consider. First, you’ll need to decide whether you want to play the American or European version of the game. The American Roulette wheel hosts two green pockets, one with a double zero and another with a single zero. The European wheel has only one single zero green pocket, lowering the house edge by almost half. Due to this, the European wheel is often favoured by players, particularly beginners.

Once you’ve found the variation you’d like to play, it’s now time to check the table minimum and maximum. The table minimum is the minimum wager you’ll be able to place down per one spin of the wheel. Of course, the more you wager the more you could potentially win, but it works both ways, and you could just as easily lose more too. The table maximum indicates the highest bets that can be placed on that particular game. When starting out, we recommend finding a game with a lower table betting limit.

Placing your bets

It’s important to bear in mind that when playing Roulette, the amount that other players wager is irrelevant and won’t affect your gameplay.

There are a variety of different bets you can place when playing Roulette, the most popular often being the outside bets as these can provide you with just under a 50% chance of bagging a win. The outside bets include placing a wager on the winning numbers either being odd or even, red or black, or high or low.

Once you’ve placed your bet, the dealer will spin the wheel and place a ball spinning in the opposite direction. When the wheel stops, the numbered segment in which the ball lands is the winning pocket. If this correlates to the bets you’ve placed, you’ll receive a payout accordingly. If you’ve placed an outside bet and it wins, you’ll receive a payout of 1:1.

When you’ve got to grips with gameplay, you could take more of a risk and place an inside bet. This can include a Straight-Up bet, for example – wagering on a single number and paying out 35:1.

Playing Roulette

When spinning the wheel for the first time, we recommend playing online Roulette, as many sites offer demo modes so you can spin for free without risk. Once you’ve got the hang of gameplay, you can then progress at your own pace without any pressure from other players and live games. Whilst you might find there’s more excitement to be had when playing a more sociable game of Roulette, boosting your confidence and knowledge by playing a digital game first is always recommended.

Ben Bradley

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