Roullete is a casino game where a little ball rolls around a wheel and people place bets on what number it will land on. While it may seem simple, it offers a surprising level of depth for serious bettors. This article will explain the rules of the game, including how to make bets and the payout odds.

Each roulette table carries a placard that describes the minimum and maximum bets allowed. It is best to choose a table within your budget, especially if you are just starting out in the casino world. As a general rule, the minimum bet is $5 and the maximum bet is $1,000 (or more).

The roulette wheel consists of a solid wooden disk slightly convex in shape with a series of metal compartments, or canoes as they are called by roulette croupiers, around its rim. Thirty-six of these compartments, painted alternately red and black and numbered nonconsecutively from 1 to 36, sit on a raised platform known as the frets or separators. On European-style wheels, a 37th compartment, painted green, carries the sign 0; on American-style wheels, there are two additional green compartments for 0 and 00.

Players can place a variety of bets on various groups of pockets, depending on their position on the table: bets placed inside the numbers are called “inside bets,” while those placed outside of the numbers are “outside bets.” Each type of bet has its own odds and payoffs.

The Dozens Bet: Also known as douzaine in French, this is a bet that the winning number will be in one of the first 12 numbers on the layout (1-18) or in one of the last 18 numbers (19-36). This is an even money bet, meaning that if the number wins, you receive a payout of 2-1.