Roulette means "little wheel" in French and France is where the game originated. To start the game, the croupier will spin the wheel in one direction while spinning the ball in the opposite direction. The ball will fall into one of the 38 slots on the roulette wheel. Before the game begins, players will place bets on which slot that the ball will fall into. You can place a bet straight-up on the middle of the numbered square that indicates you are betting on one number. You can place a split bet between two numbers by placing the chip on the line separating the two numbers, or you can place a square bet by putting a chip within the intersection of four numbers on the table.

There are three popular versions of roulette. You can play American, European, or French roulette. When playing roulette in a land-based casino, you'll only be able to play the version that is supported in that region of the world. French and European roulette have a single zero while American roulette has double zeros on the roulette table. The odds are slightly better if you play European or French roulette because they only offer a single zero bet to players.

There have been many different roulette systems developed to master the game, but it's merely a game based on luck (more on this). In the past, some players have been able to exploit the game by finding biased wheels that had tendencies for the ball to fall into certain numbers or certain areas of the wheel. When playing at an online casino, the wheels are computer generated and it would make it impossible to predict with certainty where the ball will land of the wheel.