What is European Roulette?
European Roulette is a casino game of chance that uses a roulette wheel and a betting grid. Our live croupier spins the roulette wheel in one direction and spins the roulette ball in the opposite direction, and online players bet on which pocket number the roulette ball will land in.
The European Roulette wheel has 37 pockets: a single zero and the numbers 1 through 36. Each number is colored red or black, except for the zero, which is green. The European Roulette Wheel differs from the American Roulette wheel in that it only has a single zero, whereas the American Roulette wheel has 38 pockets and contains both a single zero and a double zero. The odds of winning at roulette are better in European Roulette, since the probability of hitting your number is 1 out of 37 instead of 1 out of 38.
How to Play European Roulette
To play European Roulette, you first place your bets by placing your chips on the appropriate area of the roulette table, corresponding to the type of bet you want to make. You can accomplish this by first selecting a chip denomination and clicking your mouse on the appropriate area or areas of the virtual roulette table on your screen.
There are two main categories of roulette bets: Inside bets and outside bets. Inside bets are bets on a single number, or on a small group of two, three, four, or six numbers. Inside bets are placed in the inner area of the roulette table, right where the numbers are. Outside bets are bets on larger groups of twelve or eighteen roulette numbers. These bets are placed in the appropriate spaces around the outer perimeter of the roulette table layout.
As you are placing your bets, our live croupier will set the roulette wheel spinning and the roulette ball spinning around inside it. As the wheel slows the live croupier will announce 'no more bets' at which point no more bets will be accepted. The wheel will eventually slow down and the roulette ball will come to rest in one of the numbered pockets. That pocket that the ball lands in signifies the winning roulette number.
How to Win at European Roulette
You win at European Roulette if the winning roulette number, as determined by the spin of the roulette wheel, matches a number that you have bet on. The biggest roulette payout comes if you bet on a single number and that number wins. The smallest payout is when you bet on a group of eighteen numbers, such as all the even numbers or all the black numbers, and the winning roulette number is one of the numbers within that group.
Here is a list of all the European Roulette bets, with descriptions of the bets and the roulette payouts if you win:
Inside Bets
- Straight Bet - This is a bet on a solitary number and the chip with which the player bets, showing the coin size or credit size the player is betting, is moved to the centre of the square of the number chosen. The odds on this bet are 35:1, so if the player wins this bet, and has placed one chip then he can win 36 chips back. This is worked out as the 35 chips from the odds plus the chip he bet in the first place so it is a total of 36 chips returned.
- Split Bet - This is as it sounds, the player is able to split his bet between two numbers. In other words he can put the chip in between two squares, and he wins the bet if either of those two numbers is the winning number. The odds for this type of bet are 17:1 which is logical as it is a split bet from the straight bet which is based on landing on only one square.
- Street Bet - This is a bet on any three numbers in a row that are grouped together. All of the numbers from the wheel are laid out on a grid-like table where the player can place his bet. A "street" is made up of three numbers across, giving the player a chance to bet on three numbers in one go. Naturally the odds for this are lower at 11:1.
- Square Bet - This is a bet on a block of four numbers on the grid. The numbers all have to be adjacent. This type of bet has odds of 8:1 and can also be known as a Corner Bet or a Box of Four Bet. The chip which signifies the bet is placed at the middle meeting point of the four squares. Line Bet - This bet is also known as a Box of Six Bet which is basically a bet on two rows of numbers: a row of three and another row of three that must be adjacent. This bet pays out odds of 5:1 and to signal this bet the chip is placed above the dozen bets so that it is in-between the rows that the player is placing his bet on.
Outside Bets
- Column Bet - This is a bet placed on one of the three vertical columns on the betting grid. There are twelve numbers in each vertical column. The chip is placed at the bottom of the column that the player is betting on. The odds for this bet are 2:1. Dozen Bet - this is also a bet that pays out 2:1 and is placed on any one of the sections of 12 numbers. Hence the name Dozen Bet - i.e. it is placed on a dozen. The betting grid is split into three sections which are lots of 12 or dozens, so the bet can be on the first, second or third dozen. If the player bets five chips and one of his selected numbers comes up, with odds of 2:1 he is paid out 15 chips. The way it is worked out is by taking the bet amount multiplied by 2 which is 10, plus the original bet of five chips, giving a total of 15 chips.
- Even Money Bet - This is the bet with the lowest odds; it just pays 1:1 .The player, if he wins, redeems the bet he placed and the same again. In other words, he doubles his bet. This is a bet placed on 18 numbers in one go. The bet can be placed on one of the following squares that appear on the grid: the even, odd, red, black, 1-18, or 19-36.
