Roulette is one of the most popular casino games worldwide, offering glamour and mystery to players. It’s also a game that can provide a surprising level of depth for serious betters with the right strategy. The rules are simple enough to learn, but the payouts can be quite high.

Roulette’s popularity is largely down to its low house edge, which was brought about in 1843 when a single zero pocket was added to the wheel. This massively reduced the house’s advantage over the player, and this boosted the game’s appeal enormously. Roulette was invented in the 17th century, and it’s believed by many to have been based on older games such as hoca and portique.

The wheel of the game is a solid, convex disk with a trough-like depression that contains thirty-six compartments painted alternately red and black. There is also a green compartment marked with the number zero on American-style wheels, and there are two other green pockets on European-style wheels. The trough-like depressions are called “pockets” by the roulette croupiers, and the whole device is known as a “wheel.”

Once players have placed their bets, the roulette croupier spins the wheel and drops a small ball into the wheel’s trough-like depression. The ball then lands on a number, section, or color and winners are rewarded according to their betting odds. There are several different types of bets, including inside bets, outside bets and announced bets.

To place a bet, simply drag and drop a colored chip from the bottom of the screen onto the color, number or section of the table you wish to bet on. The computer then takes care of the rest, letting you know when you’ve won and awarding you your winnings. The winnings can then be used to place more bets or withdrawn.

There are various roulette variations that you can play online, including the classic European version and French roulette. The latter is arguably the best version of the game because it features the en prison and la partage rule, which lowers the house edge to just 1.35 per cent.

The differences between the two versions of the game are minimal, but the game is played slightly differently in each one. For example, the French version has a different table layout than the European version and it also uses different terms for some of its bets; odd and even are ’pair’ and ’impair’, high and low are ’passe’ and ’manque’, and the first, second and third dozen are ‘premiere douzaine’, ’moyenne douzaine’ and ’dernier douzaine’ respectively. Other differences include the fact that French roulette does not feature a racetrack, but that can be easily remedied by using the special ‘Racetrack’ betting area available in most online casinos. This is especially useful for those playing in France. There is also a ‘French Double Zero’ variation which offers the same house edge as European roulette but with the addition of a ‘double zero’ on the wheel.