Playing Online Roulette

The glamour of roulette is what draws many of us into brick-and-mortar casinos. The beautiful tables and the dashing croupiers spinning the wheels and rolling the little ivory balls are all the stuff of the great and beautiful casinos of the world.

Unlike slot games, however, roulette can be a bit intimidating to the uninitiated. At brick-and-mortar casinos, table stakes tend to be high, and the gamblers crowded around those tables really know their stuff - how is a beginner going to get a foothold? There is no place better to learn the ropes of the roulette table than an online casino.

The Equipment

Whether you are playing in a brick-and-mortar casino or a virtual casino, the equipment is the same. Instead of being made of metal and wood, your online casino will give you a digital representation of the equipment, but in today's casinos, the digital representations are so realistic that you will think that you are standing at the edge of a real roulette table.

10 Online Casinos to Play Roulette:

The Wheel

The Table

The felt surface of the table has a layout of all the numbers on the wheel on corresponding colors. In addition, there are areas representing blocks of numbers in various combinations and the colors of red and black. In Monte Carlo, roulette wheels have a very large tables with layouts on either side of the center mounted wheel. Elsewhere there is a single layout with the wheel mounted at the end of the table.

Placing Bets

Many bets are possible in Roulette, and many odds and many payouts. The types of bets are broken into two broad categories: Inside Bets and Outside Bets.

Inside Bets

These are simple, long odds bets.

• Straight-up - a bet on any single number
• Split - a bet on two adjoining numbers
• Street - a bet on three adjunct numbers in a horizontal line
• Corner - a bet on a block of four numbers in a square
• Six-line - a bet on two adjoining streets
• Trio - a bet on 0, 1 and 2 or 0, 2 and 3 (European style tables only)
• Basket - a bet on 0, 1 and 2; 0, 00 and 2; or 00, 2 and 3 (American style tables only)
• Top Line - a bet on 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3 (American style tables only)

These bets offer variable payouts depending on the exact odds of hitting the number or numbers in the range that the player has selected. A Straight-up bet, for example, is the longest odds in the game, and it pays 35 to 1. Of the Inside Bets, the Top Line is the most likely to hit, and it pays at 6 to 1.

Outside Bets

The Outside Bets have much better odds of hitting, and they are commensurately lower paid when they do. Here are the Outside Bets:

• 1 to 18 - a bet on the first half of the numbers, not including 0 or 00
• 19 to 36 - a bet on the second half of the numbers
• Red or Black - a bet on the color that will come up, not including green
• Even or Odd - a bet on whether an even number or an odd number will hit
• Dozen Bets - a bet on blocks of 12 numbers. Players may select 1 - 12, 13 - 24 or 25 - 36
• Column Bets - a bet on any of the three vertical columns, again containing 12 numbers, but randomized

Odd, even, red, black 1 to 18 and 19 to 36 all pay 1 to 1 odds. It is a coin flip for the players with the odds adjusted slightly in favor of the house by the presence of the zeros. The longest odds among the outside bets are represented by the Column bets, and they pay at 2 to 1.

Try a Game of Roulette Tonight!

The great thing about online casinos is that there are low table minimums, so you can try your Roulette skills for a dollar per spin until you develop your system. All of the top casinos have Roulette wheels, so head over to your favorite and get the little wheel spinning! There is no game so glamorous or exciting as Roulette.