Roulette is French for 'small wheel' suggesting French origins. It is a particularly popular casino game throughout the world, it made an appearance in Monte Carlo in Monaco in the late 18th Century. The game was alledgedly exclusive to the city until the mid-1930's.

To bet on a number or range of numbers with a random chance of them being drawn from the spin of the wheel.

The basics - The game is purely chance based as the drawing of numbers is randomised by the spinning of the Roulette wheel. Players play against the house and not against each other.

Game layout - The game is played on a table with an integral wheel on the left side and a grid of numbers and bets on the right hand side. Multiple players site or stand around the table. The wheel is seperated into 37 slots numbered from 0-36, each slot alternates in colour either being black or red.

Variations - There are two main versions of this game, both are identical other than the number of zeros on the wheel. Games will either have 1 zero (i.e. 0) or 2 zero slots (i.e. 0 and 00). The house wins when the ball lands in the 0 or 00 slots and all bets are taken by the house.

Chips - All players buy chips which are then used when betting during the game. These chips are placed over the chosen numbers or bets on the grid.

Betting - Once the previous round has been paid out, players slide their bets onto the grid to denote their bids. Chips can be placed directly over a single number, over 2 numbers, over 3 numbers, over 4 numbers, over 6 numbers or using other preset bets (by placing chips on the boundaries between each of the desired numbers).

Other bets - Players can bet that the drawn number will be either Red or Black, Odd (aka Impair) or Even (aka Pair), in the range of 1-18 (known as Manque) or 19-36 (Passe). Also players can bet on numbers being in the range of 1-12 (1st 12), 13-24 (2nd 12) or 25-36 (3rd 12), alternatively players can bet on a column of 12 numbers.

Play - Once all bets are placed the wheel is spun and the ball is spun in the opposite direction. The ball skips over the slots and will eventually sit in one. If a player has bet on this number solely or as part of an applicable bet they win at a specific rate.

Pay out rates - The rates commonly used are as follows:

Some casinos in Britain allow 24 numbers to be played at a payout rate of 1:2

Win or lose - Once the wheel has stopped spinning the croupier retrieves all losing bets from the grid and then pays all winning bets.

Repeat - once the pay-outs have been made the table is opened to new bets and the next round begins.

Roulette is a game of chance and as such there are no real ways of getting an advantage over the house. There are a few things to look out for though.

Where possible play a Roulette wheel with only a single zero as this give the house a lower advantage than a wheel with two zeros.

Aim to try and win as much money as possible on fewer spins. A lucky guess on a single big bet might win you more than 10 individual smaller bet guesses.

Watch out for numbers that seem to crop up more often than others as this may indicate a slight imbalance of the wheel. This is only worth thinking about in a real casino environment with a physical wheel, as online casino games will never show this problem. Even in real casinos this is not really worth considering any more.