The goal
Before each spin, you place chips on the layout, trying to predict where the ball will land. Every bet that covers the winning number gets paid; the rest go to the house. There's no opponent but the house, and you make no decisions after the spin.
The European wheel
The roulette on Selminha.com is European, with a single zero: 37 pockets, 0 through 36. Eighteen numbers are red (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 30, 32, 34 and 36), eighteen are black and the zero is green.
On the wheel the numbers follow the traditional order, which starts 0, 32, 15, 19, 4, 21, 2, 25. On the layout they sit in twelve rows of three, 1 through 36, with the zero at the end.
Money and limits
You sit down with $2,000 and bet with $5, $25, $100 and $500 chips. The most you can have on the table is $500 a round, counting every chip on the layout, whatever the bet. You also can't bet more than you have.
It's all play money: you can't buy it, it isn't worth anything and it can't be cashed in. Roulette on Selminha.com is just for fun.
How to bet on the layout
- Pick a chip at the bottom and tap the layout where you want to bet. Every tap adds one more chip.
- In the middle of a number, the bet is on that number.
- On the line between two numbers, the bet is on both.
- On the corner where four numbers meet, the bet is on all four.
- On the outer edge of a row (the 1, 4, 7 side), the bet is on that row of three; between two rows, on all six.
- The outside boxes take the dozens, the columns, the colors, even, odd and the halves.
When a chip lands, the table shows the bet's name and what it pays.
Inside bets
- Straight up — 35 to 1
- A single number, zero included.
- Split — 17 to 1
- Two numbers next to each other on the layout. Zero with 1, 2 or 3 counts too.
- Street — 11 to 1
- A row of three numbers, like 16, 17 and 18. The trios with zero (0, 1 and 2 or 0, 2 and 3) pay the same.
- Corner — 8 to 1
- Four numbers that meet at a corner. The first four (0, 1, 2 and 3) also pay 8 to 1.
- Six line — 5 to 1
- Two rows side by side, six numbers, like 13 through 18.
Outside bets
- Dozen — 2 to 1
- Twelve numbers: 1 to 12, 13 to 24 or 25 to 36.
- Column — 2 to 1
- Twelve numbers in one column of the layout, like 1, 4, 7 and so on up to 34.
- Red or black — 1 to 1
- The eighteen numbers of one color.
- Even or odd — 1 to 1
- The eighteen even numbers or the eighteen odd ones.
- 1–18 or 19–36 — 1 to 1
- The low half or the high half.
Every bet runs on the same math: 36 divided by how many numbers it covers, minus 1. That's why a straight up pays 35 and red pays 1.
The zero
Zero is neither red nor black, neither even nor odd, and it isn't part of any dozen, column or half. When zero comes up, every outside bet loses; only the inside bets that cover zero win.
The zero is where the house edge comes from: 2.7% of everything bet, the same on every bet.
The spin and the payout
When you tap SPIN, the number is drawn on the spot by the browser's random number generator, and nobody picks the result. The 3D wheel shows the ball spinning until it drops into that pocket.
When it stops, a gold heart marks the number on the layout and the winning bets light up. The table takes the losing chips and pays the winning ones: you get your winnings plus your original bet back. The result display shows the outcome of the round: what you won or lost on the spin, or BROKE EVEN when the round nets out to zero.
Table features and the end of the night
- UNDO
- Takes back the last chip you placed.
- CLEAR
- Takes every chip off the layout.
- DOUBLE
- Doubles every chip on the layout, if your balance and the round limit allow it.
- REBET
- Puts your whole bet from the last spin back down.
- NEW ROUND
- Clears the layout for the next spin. Tapping the layout with a chip does the same.
- LAST 10
- Shows the last ten numbers that came up, each in its own color.
- CASH OUT
- Asks first, then ends the night with the money you have. That number is your score and goes on the top-five board.
If you run out of money and can't cover the $5 chip, the night is over. On a computer, SPACE spins the wheel and Backspace undoes the last chip.
Tips for beginners
- The wheel has no memory: the last numbers that came up don't change the odds of the next spin.
- Outside bets hit more often and pay little; inside bets hit less and pay more. The house edge is the same on all of them.
- Mixing bets, like a color plus a few straight ups, makes the game more varied without changing the math.
- Keep the $500 round limit in mind before you hit DOUBLE.
- Decide beforehand how far you want to go and use CASH OUT: knowing when to get up is part of the game.
Roulette variations
American roulette has an extra pocket, the double zero, which nearly doubles the house edge. In French roulette, when zero comes up, even-money bets usually lose only half, and many tables take call bets on sections of the wheel. On Selminha.com the roulette is European, with a single zero, the layout bets described above and, on a zero, every outside bet losing in full.