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Placing Inside and Outside Bets

Practice playing at a free table before placing actual bets. See if the casino has a free table, purchase one to play at home, or play on one online just to get a feel for the game. This will introduce you to the various bets involved in roulette. You can make several types of wagers on a roulette table, which is basically a 3-column chart that lists the 36 numbers on the wheel. The types of wagers are grouped into 2 categories:

Inside bets are wagers placed on specific numbers on the table. If you bet $1 on a number and the ball lands on that number, you win a 35:1 payout, or $35 plus your original $1 bet. You can also split your bet between up to 6 numbers that are next to each other on the table.

Outside bets, such as even/odd and red/black, are lower risk, but the payout is only 2:1 or 1:1. There are blocks labeled with various bets on the table outside of the chart of numbers. This is why they’re called outside bets, while wagers placed on the numbers are called inside bets.

Make outside bets for better odds of winning. As long as you make the table minimum for each individual bet, you can make multiple outside bets to increase your odds of a payout. For instance, if you wager $1 on even and $1 on black, you’ll win a $2 payout if the ball lands on black 10, and you’ll break even if it lands on red 16. Along with even/odd and red/black, which offer payouts of 1:1, outside bets include:

High/low: Wagering that the ball will land on 1 through 18 or 19 through 36; the payout is 1:1.
Dozens: Betting that the ball will land on 1 through 12, 13 through 24, or 25 through 36. The payout is 2:1.
Columns: Betting the ball will land on a number within one of the table’s 3 columns; the payout is 2:1.

Bet on the inside in moderation to increase your payout. Though they have the highest payout, straight bets on a single number are risky. The odds of the ball landing on the exact number you chose is 1 in 37 (2.7%) for European wheels and 1 in 38 (2.63%) for American wheels. In addition to making a straight bet on a single number, you can also divide the odds between multiple numbers.

The payout decreases with the more numbers you split. A straight bet (1 number) yields a 35:1 payout, while a 6 line bet offers a 5:1 payout.
When you split your wager, the numbers must occur next to each other on the roulette board within a 12-cell block. The exception is a 4 corners bet, in which you wager on the corner numbers of one of the table’s blocks.

Observe the wheel, note people’s wagers, and look for trends. Watch the croupier, or the casino roulette worker, spin the wheel and release the ball, observe the ball as it spins around the rim, and study other people’s wagers. Check for wheel biases, or numbers or sections where the ball repeatedly lands.[4]
If people making wagers spin the wheel on their own, give it a spin yourself to get a feel for how fast it moves.
Tip: Numbers or sections that repeat may just be a coincidence. However, if the ball consistently lands in the section of the wheel opposite the one it was thrown, the wheel might be rigged or tilted.

Minimizing Your Losses

Stick to your profit goal and loss limit. When it comes to roulette and any other gambling game, you should only bet an amount that you know you can afford to lose. Once you’ve decided how much money you’re willing to lose, stick to that amount and don’t be tempted to bet any more. Things can get out of hand quickly, especially with a game that goes so fast.

Additionally, don’t get too ambitious when it comes to profiting off of a roulette table. Set a low profit goal, such as 5% of your total wagers.
To avoid temptation, limit the amount of alcohol you consume, write your maximum acceptable losses on a piece of paper to hold yourself more accountable, and ask a friend to keep tabs on you.

Decrease your bets over time to protect your profits. If you start off betting $100 and end up with $150, withdraw your profit ($50) instead of adding it to the next wager. Continue playing with the same $100 to limit your maximum loss to $50.
The more you win and withdraw your money, the more likely it is that you’ll at least break even.

Remember that the house always has an advantage. Since the maximum payout is 35:1 instead of 37:1 or 38:1, the house always has an edge. Additionally, recall that there’s a 0 pocket in European wheels and an extra 00 pocket on American wheels. This means that, even if you pick a “safe” red/black or high/low bet, you still have less than a 50% chance of winning, since 0 and 00 are green (not red or black) and don’t count as low in a high/low bet.

Suppose you bet $1 on the same number on a European wheel 37 times. If the odds play out, you’ll lose 36 times and you’ll land on that number once. You’ll end up losing $36, but you’ll only make $35 in winnings, so your net gain is -1. This gives you a house edge of -2.7% (-1 ÷ 37 = -0.027) .

Similarly, since there are 36 numbers and a 0 pocket on a European wheel, you have a 51.35% chance of losing if you bet on black. Say you bet $1 on black for 37 spins; if the odds play out, you’ll win $18 and lose $19. Again, you have a profit ratio of -1 to 37, or -2.7%.

This means that, no matter which type of bet you place, you’re more likely to end up losing money to the house because of how the game is structured.

Play on European wheels instead of American wheels when possible. The American Roulette wheel has an extra slot, 00, which decreases the odds of winning. One pocket may not seem like a big deal, but the impact on probability is drastic. On an American wheel, the house advantage is twice that of a European wheel, which means you could lose money twice as fast.

Recall that, on a European wheel, the house edge is 2.7%. If you bet $1 on the same number for 37 spins and the odds play out, you’ll end up with a net profit of -$1 ($35 in winnings and $36 in losses).

On an American wheel, if you bet $1 on the same number for 38 spins (accounting for the extra pocket), you’ll end up with $35 in winnings and $37 in losses, or a net profit of -2. That gives you a house edge of -5.26% (-2 ÷ 38 = -0.0526), which is twice that of a European wheel’s -2.7% edge.

Keep in mind probability is a trend with no short-term guarantees. The real trick to roulette is to get lucky, then quit while you’re ahead. Every spin has a 1 in 37 (for European) or 1 in 38 (for American) chance of landing in a given pocket. Each spin is an individual trial with its own odds but, the longer you play, the more likely it is that you’ll fall into the probabilities that structure roulette.

Over the course of a few spins, there’s no guarantee that one spin will be red and the next will be black. The ball could land on a black pocket 5 times in a row despite the roughly 50:50 odds of landing on red or black.

For another example, try flipping a coin. If you flip it 3 times, you may very well land on heads 3 times in a row. However, if you flip it 100 times, it’s more likely that you’ll flip heads and tails around 50 times each.