How to Play Roulette: Beginner's Guide
Roulette is the simplest game on the table to understand: a ball drops onto a spinning wheel, it lands in one numbered pocket, and every bet on the layout either covers that number or doesn't. There's no skill in the spin itself — the entire game is choosing which numbers to cover before the ball drops.
Practice on the free roulette wheel →
The wheel and table layout
An American wheel has 38 pockets: the numbers 1 through 36, plus a green 0 and 00. The betting table (the "layout") is a grid of those same 36 numbers, with the two zeros off to one side. You bet by placing chips directly on the layout, not on the wheel itself.
Inside bets vs outside bets
The layout splits into two zones:
- Inside bets — placed on or between the numbered squares themselves. These cover fewer numbers, so they pay more: straight up (1 number, 35:1) down to a six line (6 numbers, 5:1).
- Outside bets — placed in the boxes around the number grid: red/black, odd/even, high/low (1-18 or 19-36), columns, and dozens. These cover more numbers, so they pay less — down to even money on red/black, odd/even, and high/low.
Despite the very different payouts, almost every bet on the table carries the same house edge — see the full odds and payouts chart for the breakdown.
How a round works
- Bets go down while the wheel is open.
- The dealer spins the wheel and rolls the ball in the opposite direction.
- Once the ball is close to landing, no more bets are accepted.
- The ball settles into a pocket — that number and color win.
- Losing bets are cleared, winning bets are paid, and the next round starts.
Chips and payouts
Roulette tables typically use special color-coded chips, unique to each player at the table, so the dealer can tell whose bet is whose when several people are betting on overlapping numbers. Payouts are read straight off the chart: a $10 straight-up bet that hits pays $350 (35:1), a $10 red bet that hits pays $10 (1:1).
American vs European wheels
American wheels carry both a 0 and a 00; European wheels have only a single 0. That one extra pocket is the entire difference, and it matters more than it sounds — see American vs European roulette for the exact house-edge gap.
Basic bankroll tips
Roulette has no bet that beats the house edge, so bankroll management is about controlling variance, not chasing an edge. Pick a session bankroll before you sit down, size bets as a small fraction of it, and treat outside bets (more frequent, smaller swings) differently from inside bets (rare, larger swings) when deciding how much volatility you actually want.
The best bets, mathematically
On an American wheel, every standard bet — straight up through outside bets — carries the same 5.26% house edge. There's no mathematically "best" standard bet; it's purely a choice between fewer, bigger wins (inside bets) or more frequent, smaller wins (outside bets). The one bet to actively avoid is the top line (0-00-1-2-3), priced worse than everything else at 7.89%.
Common beginner mistakes
- Betting the top line out of habit — it's the only bet on the table with a different (worse) house edge.
- Assuming past spins predict the next one — each spin is independent; a wheel that's landed red six times in a row is exactly as likely to land red or black on the seventh.
- Chasing losses by doubling up — no betting progression changes the underlying house edge; it only changes how fast your bankroll swings.
- Confusing American and European odds — if you ever play a single-zero wheel, the math (and the best bet) is different. See American vs European roulette.