American Roulette, as with all roulette games, involves players betting on a choice of numbers and/or combinations of numbers as well on even bets such as red or black, high or low and odd or even. Players can also choose to bet on red or black.
Once bets are placed a ball is spun around a Roulette Wheel. when the ball stops spinning, it falls into a number pocket. Each number is also colored red or black.
All those bets on corresponding number and color win. Others lose. winnings are calculated according to the type of bet placed.
The Betting:
As a player of American Roulette, you are able to make any combination of 11 different types of bet.
All numbers 1-36 are arranged on the table into 3 rows and 12 columns. any bet within these rows and columns is referred to as an inside bet. There are 6 kinds of inside bet and the further 5 bets are called outside bets. Inside bets may be on one number or a collection of numbers.
Outside bets in American Roulette are on red or black, on odd or even, low or high, on a range of numbers, called a dozen, or on a full column of numbers.
The House Advantage:
With American Roulette the house will usually retain a 5.26% advantage, twice that of European Roulette. This advantage is true on all your possible bets except for a 5-number bet which carries a house advantage of 7.89%.
La Partage:
Unique to American Roulette is the rule of La Partage (also known as Surrender). Use of this rule reduces the House Advantage to 2.63% and can only be applied to even money bets. It allows the player to only lose half of their bet if the ball falls on a zero.
The Roulette Wheel:
In American Roulette the wheel has 38 pockets. One for each number 1 thru 36 plus a zero and a double zero. it is the presence of the double zero that distinguishes American roulette from European Roulette.
The arrangement of the numbered pockets are not in order but neither are they random. They are placed in a calculated fashion to ensure an equal chance of the ball landing in any combination of odd or even and red or black.
This results in red and black occurring alternately around the American Roulette wheel. Odd and even numbers are also alternated but are found in pairs. Odd numbers are placed, in increasing order, next to the next even number.
These pairs are split up by a single number. Interestingly, adding all numbers together would give you 666 and adding both numbers of any pair together will almost always give you 37 or 39.