The roulette table is a colorful addition to the casino floor, with unique features
every roulette player needs to know. In it's most basic form the table layout is a
rectangle stretching from the roulette wheel at one end, to the column bets at the other.
One side and end of the table is dedicated to players, in most cases it's standing room
only. The other side is the dealers domain, and only they may enter. Online of course
it's a little different, you only need to know enough about the roulette table layout to
place a bet.
If you've read our 'how to play roulette' section then you're already familiar with
the two basic kind of bets that exist, the inside bets and the outside bets. The layout
of a roulette table falls neatly around these bets. There are basically two
sections, an inner section that contains each individual instance of the numbers present
on the wheel, and an outside section that has betting areas which correspond to a
characteristic of each number, as opposed to the number itself. So inside bets are
basically bets that a specific number will come up, and outside bets are bets that a
specific type of number will come up (red/black, odd/even, first twelve/last twelve).
Let's look at the outside of the table layout first. On most standard American
roulette tables (no worries, European tables are the same, except for the newly popular
version, French roulette, which we'll look at a little later on.) you will find options
for betting on the first, second, or third block of 12 numbers, the first or second half
of the numbers (1-18, or 19-36), red or black, and even or odd numbers. Additionally you
can place column bets. Column bets are located at the thin end of the inner block of
numbers. There are three bets, each corresponding to a column of numbers from the inner
block. For example one column bet is a bet that 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31
or 34 will come up. These bets pay back at 2:1.
On the inside there is an individual square for each number present on the wheel. You
can place bets on these numbers individually, or bridge them together in a number of
different ways. To learn more about placing your bets in roulette, read our roulette
odds and betting page.
A new form of roulette, which as far as I can tell is no different than it's regular
counterpart with the exception of a new roulette table layout, is gaining a name for
itself as French roulette. Each of the bets you would expect to see on a regular table are indeed present, they are just shuffled
around the board in a different manner. I haven't had the chance to play on one of these
tables in real life myself, next time I get to Europe I guess, but it looks like they
have simply made both sides of the board accessible to players. Normally the dealers
occupy one length of the table, but with a French roulette table layout dealers are
confined to an area nearer the wheel, and players can stand around the entire table.
I imagine this gives the game a little more of a party atmosphere, similar to craps.
