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Playing roulette is easy to master, that is, if you know what things you should consider. Roulette, however, is more than just placing a bet and waiting for the dealer's signal, but it also involves knowing and understanding the intricacies that comes with the game. Take a look at the checklist of things you need to consider before playing a roulette game.

The Chips

Because of the nature of the game, roulette do not use the same casino chips you use in normal casino games. Instead, special chips are issued to the player to be used exclusively for roulette. The chips are color-coded so that the players and the dealer will know exactly who owns the set of winning chips. After the game, a player can go back to the cashier to exchange his roulette chips to regular casino chips or real money.

The Croupier

The croupier or the dealer is the main arbiter of the game. He calls for the players to wager their chips and he also closes the betting process. He spins the wheel and places the roulette ball into the spinning wheel. He also declares the winning number. And most importantly, he collects losing chips and pays out the winning ones. If you are new to the game of roulette, you might want to play by his rules or you might find yourself escorted by the pit boss out of the casino.

The Table

There are essentially two kinds of table used in roulette - the American and the European table. The tables are similar in almost every aspects of the design where there are regions provided for various forms of inside and outside betting. The difference lies on '00' betting space in the American Roulette, something which is missing in its European counterpart. This may sound minute for a newbie roulette player, but for the experienced player, it spells additional house edge and lesser odds of winning.

The Wheel

Some players tend to generalize the roulette wheel by saying all wheels are the same, but they're not. Like the roulette table, the roulette wheel comes in two varieties - the European wheel and the American wheel. They also have the number 1 through 36 plus a slot for zero. Their difference rested mainly on the presence of a '00' slot in American wheel. The wheel may also seem to be placed at random, but they're not. Most of the numbers add up to either 37 or 39 with their neighbor numbers two doors away.

The House Edge

Simple games like roulette tend to have higher odds than some casino games. European version has lower odds compared to the American version mainly because of the additional '00' slot present in the American Roulette. In European Roulette, the edge is about 2.5%, while in American Roulette the edge goes as high as 5.26%. This means a player of American Roulette loses more than the European player in the same amount of time. It is important to note that some of the bets carry different odds compared to others bets. En prison option, for example gives the house and edge of about 1.35% while the five-liner bet boost the edge up to 7.89%

The Bets

There are generally two types of bets in a roulette game - the inside bets and the outside bets. Inside bets are bets made inside the grid while outside bets are made in areas outside the grid. Inside bets have higher payout but lower odds compared to outside bets. It includes the straight, split, street, corner, five-liner, and six-liner bets. Outside bets, on the other hand, have less payout ratio but relatively higher odds. Outside bets includes even-money bets, dozen bets and column bets.