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European Roulette
The roulette wheel used in Europe usually has 37 spaces. This is similar to the roulette wheel used by the French. As with all roulette games, the house advantage is derived from the fact that there is a zero space which is neither red nor black (it is usually painted a pleasant green). There are various variations in the European roulette rules regarding what happens in the event of the wheel landing on the zero.
Bets in European Roulette
The variations alluded to in the previous paragraph refer only to even money bets (in other words, all bets where the odds are 1:1). Should a player wager on one of the even money bets (Red, Black, Even, Odd, High or Low) and the wheel land on a zero he will find that, the precise rules vary from casino to casino. In general, these variations will include what is known as "en prison" and (or) "la partage". "En prison" means that the wager is "imprisoned" until the next spin. A win after imprisonment means that the player only gets his money back, whereas a loss means that the wager is lost. "La partage" means that the player can get back half is bet. Both these options serve to decrease the house edge and thus are favorable for the player (who may win something or loose less rather than simply loosing the wager). Again, these rules apply only to even money bets.
Repeating Zeroes in European Roulette
A major area of rules variation, regarding imprisonment, in European roulette comes to play when two zeroes are landed in subsequent spins (the odds of this happening are not very high - 1 in 1369). In some places, the wager is simply held again for yet another spin (In the Casino Barrieres chain which operates in France). In others, the wager is simply lost. Toeing the middle line are casinos which allow "double imprisonment". The rule in such a case is that the player must win twice in a row on subsequent spins in order to get his money back. Usually, a zero following double imprisonment spells a loss. Apparently, there are some casinos where triple and quadruple imprisonment is also possible.
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