A ball dropping into a slot at random makes Roulette a game of great chance. You play against the house - the dealer or croupier � who spins the wheel and deals with wagers/payouts. There are different kinds of Roulette: European and American. The difference is that American Roulette has two zeros, so there are 38 slots. European Roulette has only one zero, so 37 slots.

Playing Roulette

1)  Place bets either on the table layout itself or on the outside. Choose any number (including zero). When all players select their spot, the croupier sends a ball running around a spinning wheel.

2)  Bets can continue to be placed until the ball is clearly about to fall. Then the croupier calls out 'No more bets'.

3)  With the ball landing in a specific slot, the croupier marks the winning number on the table. All losing chips are collected and the winner is paid.

4)  You can also win money be being close to the winning number.

The house advantage
A casino has a house advantage of 2.7% on a single zero roulette wheel. When there are two zeros, this advantage rises to 5.26%. For a five-number bet, the house advantage is 7.9%.

'En Prison' rule
In some casinos, having the ball land on the zero lets you reclaim half your bet or leave it in place (en prison = in prison) for a second round. Should the ball fall in zero again, you lose your entire bet.

' La Partage' rule
This rule simply lets you reclaim half your bet. There is no second round.

Roulette payouts
If you bet 'Straight-Up', you gamble on one number alone. This pays 35:1 odds, giving you 36. Should there be no house advantage, you will have 37 in European Roulette and 38 in American Roulette.

A two-number bet - called Split Bet - pays 17 to 1.