When you hear the word European roulette, classy, high rollers in tuxedos and long dresses are what comes to mind. There are actually two types of roulette that are played in casinos all over the world. One of these is European roulette, or sometimes called French roulette.
European Roulette – The Game
European roulette is so-called because it is the type of roulette that is found in most European casinos. It is also played in some Atlantic City casinos as well as several choice casinos over the Internet. European roulette is popular because it gives the player better winning odds. As opposed to its American cousin, European roulette has a house edge of 2.7%.
In European roulette, the wheel is composed of 37 numbers with a single zero (0) and the numbers 1 through 36. To start playing, the dealer or the croupier turns the numbered wheel in one direction and releases a small white ball in the other direction. The object of the game is to guess where the ball rests after the spin.
European Roulette – The Bets
There are a total of 11 types of bets you can make in European roulette. These bets may be single numbers or multiple numbers arranged in groups of 2, 3, 4 through 18. You can also bet for either of the two colors in the European roulette wheel – black and red.
When you look at the European roulette table layout, you would notice that there is a box there that contains all the 37 numbers represented in the wheel. The box is comprised of twelve 3-numbered rows and three 12-numbered columns for a total of 37 miniature boxes. The bets you place inside or on the edges of these tiny boxes are called inside bets.
There are also several types of inside bets you can make in European roulette, like the Straight Up or single-number, Split (two-number), Street or Trio (three-number), Corner (four-number), Five-number, and the Line or six-number bet. Besides the inside bets, you can also place bets that are outside the box. Called outside bets, these types of bets are all comprised of a group of numbers. The Red/Black bet in European roulette is when you place a bet on either the red numbers or the black numbers. You can also bet for Even/Odd, Low/High, Dozen (twelve-number), or Column.
European Roulette – The Rules
The rules in European roulette are not complex and are easy to understand. Two basic rules that you would most often see applied in European casinos are En Prison and La Partage.
En Prison is a rule that only applies in European roulette. It is when a player is given two options when the ball lands on the zero slot. With En Prison, you have the choice to either surrender half of your bet or leave it as is until the next spin. If the next spin still comes up with zero, you would lose your bet.
The second rule is La Partage. This rule is somewhat similar to En Prison. The only difference is that the player is left with only one option and that is to give up half of his bet immediately after zero comes up.
When either of these rules are applied, the house advantage in European roulette goes down from 2.7% to 1.35%.