In movies, the cool people play roulette. The cretins play all the other tables but if you want to exude chill, roulette is your jones. Why is it cool? It's quiet, everyone's Armani'd up and the person spinning the wheel isn't a dealer, they're a croupier. Yeah, we know, Jules the guy pulling espresso shots is a barista and the guy swinging off the end of the trash truck is an engineer, but a croupier is too sweet to be anything but freezer quality.

Okay, it's cool, how do we play, wingnut?

The Players

Roulette is limited to the amount of people playing at one time. Usually the maximum is eight (8).

The Chips

Each person is given a different colored set of chips as to distinguish one player from another.

The Play

Take your chip or chips and place a bet on a number, on a combination of numbers or any of the bets outside of the numbers. You can continue to place bets until the croupier has dropped the ball and it is over the slots. At that time he'll signal that no more bets can be placed. The ball will fall into a slot, the croupier will place the "dolly" on the winning number, clear the losers, pay off the winners and the whole routine starts over again.

In Prison

It's not the greatest thing in the world but for those players that placed even-money bets, if the number comes up zero, they may lose only half of their bet. The other half will be in prison and played again on the same bet. This does not happen at all casinos and should be considered before you play.

The Payouts

A one number only bet pays 35 to 1.

A two-number bet, called a split bet, pays 17 to 1.

A three-number bet, called a street bet, pays 11 to 1.

A four-number bet, called corner bet, pays 8 to 1.

A six-number bet, pays 5 to 1.

A bet on the outside dozen or column, pays 2 to 1.

A bet on the outside even money bets, pays 1 to 1.

Roulette is an easy game to play. And a great place for friends to gather. It doesn't move fast, you don't have to lose a lot of money and you can all sit at a table and drink... no there's nothing wrong with that.