Atlassino Academy · Roulette · Lesson 4 of 6
Wheel chips, "no more bets" and the marker
At a roulette table you buy chips in a colour nobody else at the table is using, and those chips follow rules of their own: where they are good, when your hands come off them, and how they turn back into money.
You put $100 on a roulette table, and the dealer slides back a stack of chips in one colour with no amount printed on any chip. What is one chip from that stack worth, and where can you use a chip like that?
The short answer
One chip is worth the amount you named at the buy-in: here $5, which makes the stack 20 chips. A chip of that colour is good at that one table and nowhere else — not at the next roulette table, not at the cage — so before you leave, the dealer changes the stack back into ordinary chips with their amounts printed on them.
The money you put on the table, divided by what you say one chip is worth, makes the number of chips in your stack.
Two of these three are yours to decide: the money you put down and what one chip of your colour is worth. The number of chips in your stack follows from those two, and nothing printed on the chips will remind you of the value later, because the value lives in what you told the dealer. The amounts are only an example, not a suggested buy-in.
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
The first time I sat down at a roulette table, I put money on the felt and a tower of chips in one colour came back across the table, and I had no idea what a single chip in that tower was worth. Nobody had told me that the answer was mine to give.
A colour of your own
Most chips in a casino carry their amount printed on them, and they are good at tables across the room. At a roulette table you also buy a second kind of chip from the dealer, in a colour of your own, and bets on the numbers in the middle of the layout are made with that second kind.
- Put the money on the tablein front of the dealer, never into the dealer’s hand.
- Name what one chip is worththe value of your colour is yours to choose when you buy in.
- Take the stackin a colour nobody else at the table is using
The money stays on the felt until the dealer takes the money, and money laid on a number is not a bet at roulette: the dealer changes money into chips first.
What one chip of your colour is worth is yours to name at the buy-in, anywhere from $1 a chip to $100 a chip. No amount is printed on a chip of your colour, because a chip like that has no value until it is bought in.
Same money, same colour: the more one chip is worth, the fewer chips the money makes. 20 chips worth $5 and 5 chips worth $20 are the easiest pair to mix up, because the two numbers swap places.
Your colour is how the dealer keeps track of whose bet is whose, which is why each player at the table has a colour nobody else is using. Two players can want the same number, and then the second player simply stacks chips of the second colour onto the first player’s bet. Where each chip sits is still the player’s own responsibility, even when the dealer helps put the chip there.
A piece of the layout around 17, the numbers in their rows. On 17 sit two chips of one colour, and two chips of a second colour are stacked onto the first colour.
Good at this table and nowhere else
Chips of your colour can only be used at the table where you bought them, and away from that table a chip of your colour has no value at all: not at the roulette table next to it, and not at the cage.
So the colour goes back before you go. When you are done, you push the stack to the dealer at the same table, and the dealer changes the stack for ordinary chips, the kind with their amount printed on them.
- Wait for the marker to come offthe spin in play is settled first, and nothing on the layout moves before that
- Push the stack of your colour to the dealerat the same table the stack came from
- Take the ordinary chipschips with their amount printed on them, which are not tied to this table
Leoformer dealer · rules and maths
When I dealt, the walk-away mistake I saw most was not a bad bet. It was a player standing up with a handful of colour, walking off to a card table, and coming back a quarter of an hour later to ask why nobody would take those chips.
So change the colour before anything else when you are done: before the cage, before the next table, before your coat.
Two minimums on one table
Every table posts the smallest and the largest bet it takes, on a sign the players can see. At a roulette table the minimum comes in two parts, because the layout itself is in two parts: the inside, where the bets on the numbers go, and the outside, where the bets on red or black, odd or even and the like go.
A roulette table sign with two separate lines: an inside minimum and an outside minimum.
A sign drawn for this page, with an example minimum of $5 on each half. A real table posts its own figures, and the two need not match.
On the outside, the minimum goes on each bet by itself. On the inside, you can spread the minimum across different numbers, and the chips on all of those numbers count together. And the full minimum goes on one half or the other: part inside and part outside does not make a minimum, because the inside and the outside have separate minimums and count as separate bets.
- Meets the minimumOne $1 chip on each of 5 numbersOn the inside the chips count together: $5 across the numbers.
- Meets the minimum$5 on redOne outside bet, at the minimum by itself.
- Does not meet the minimum$2 on red and $3 on oddTwo outside bets, and each bet is under the minimum by itself.
- Does not meet the minimum$3 on a number and $2 on blackHalf inside and half outside: the minimum cannot be split between the two.
Leoformer dealer · rules and maths
The minimum was the question I answered most at the wheel, usually right after somebody had put three small chips on three different outside boxes.
No more bets: when your hands come off the layout
Bets can go down until the dealer says “No more bets”; some dealers say it in French, “Rien ne va plus”. From that moment no bet can be placed, changed or taken back.
- Bets are openHands on: chips go down, move or come back
- “No more bets”Hands off
- The ball comes to restHands off
- The marker goes on the numberHands off: the table is frozen
- The bets that came in are paidHands off until the last one is paid
- The marker comes offHands on: the next spin is open
The ball goes round the wheel at least seven times before it comes to rest. Every chip stays where it lies all that time.
At an electronic terminal the call is a light instead of a voice: when “No more bets” is highlighted, chips can no longer be added, changed or removed for that spin, and the terminal is locked out.
The marker on the number
When the ball comes to rest, the dealer announces the number and marks the number on the layout with a clear plastic marker.
A piece of the layout around 23, the numbers in their rows. The clear marker stands on 23, chips of two colours sit on 23 under the marker, and a chip of a third colour sits on 26.
The ball came to rest in 23: the two colours under the marker came in, and the chip on 26 did not.
While the marker is on the layout, the table is frozen: nobody touches chips, the chips being paid included, until the dealer has finished paying everybody. The same clear piece, which some rooms call a dolly, is the signal for anybody walking up: while the marker sits on the table, a newcomer cannot join the game, and once the dealer lifts the marker off, bets can go down again.
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
Buy your colour once, for the amount you decided on at home. When that stack is gone, the evening at this table is over: buying a second colour is a new decision, and it deserves the same thought as the first one — made away from the table, not in the minute after a spin went the other way. Money that went on the last spin is not something the next spin owes you back.
The stretch between the call and the marker coming off is a good moment to look at the clock. If the money on the layout has started to feel like money you need, change the colour back, stop, and talk to one of the lines below.
If it stops being fun
If gambling stops being entertainment, help is available. 19+ in most of Canada; 18+ in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. More on responsible gaming.
Practice: your colour
The practice follows one visit to a roulette table, from the buy-in to the moment you leave.
Nothing is bet here. No ball is spun and no money moves. Every moment is a decision a player makes at the table, before a spin or between two spins, and those decisions are the ones worth practising.
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The practice table needs JavaScript. Here is one moment from it, with the answer.
The buy-in
You put $100 on the table and ask for chips worth $5 each. How many chips of your colour should come back across the table?
- 20 $100 divided into chips worth $5 each makes 20 chips.
- 5 That is what one chip is worth, read as the number of chips. The stack is counted in chips, and every chip in the stack stands for $5.
- 100 That is the stack at $1 a chip. A chip of your colour here stands for more money than that, so the same money makes fewer chips.
The money you put down and the value you name decide the stack between them: the money divided by what one chip is worth. The value is yours to set at the buy-in, and the number of chips follows from the value.
Second, select a dollar value for your chips, which could be as low as $1 per chip, or as high as $100 per chip.OLG PlaySmart · Roulette — how to play · read
If special coloured roulette chips are used, you determine the value of the chips when you buy in.Fallsview Casino Resort · Roulette · read
In order to eliminate confusion over the ownership of the inside bets, each player purchases wheel checks of a specific colour at the table and determines their value before beginning to play.Loto-Québec, Casino de Montréal · Roulette · read
The call
The dealer has just said “No more bets.” Your chip is on 17, and you have changed your mind: you would rather be on 18. What do you do?
- Leave the chip on 17 and keep your hands off the layout After the call no bet can be placed, changed or taken back, and moving a chip from 17 to 18 is changing a bet.
- Slide the chip across to 18 while the ball is still going round The ball still moving makes no difference: the call closes the spin, and a chip slid across after the call is a bet changed after the call.
- Take the chip back and sit this spin out Taking a bet back after the call is ruled out along with placing and changing one. The chip stays on 17 for this spin.
The call closes the spin for every seat at once. Before “No more bets” a chip can go down, move or come back; after the call, every chip on the layout stays exactly where the chip lies until the spin is settled and the marker has come off.
Players can place bets until the dealer says “Rien ne va plus” (meaning “No more bets”). Bets cannot be placed, changed or withdrawn thereafter.Loto-Québec · Game rules: Roulette · section The wheel, the bets, the round, payouts · read
When the croupier announces, “no more bets”, you must stop placing bets and touching your chips on the table.OLG PlaySmart · Placing Bets in Roulette · read
When the system announces “No more bets, thank you” you cannot place any further wagers.Club Regent Casino · Gaming · read
Leaving the table
You are done for the evening, with 14 chips of your colour in front of you. What do you do with the chips?
- Push the chips to the dealer at this table and take ordinary chips in exchange Coloured chips are changed back at the roulette table they came from, for chips with their amount printed on them.
- Carry the chips to the cage and cash them there Roulette colour is not cashed out at the cage. Away from its own table, a chip of your colour has no value.
- Keep the chips for the roulette table across the room Every roulette table has its own set of chips, and at any other table, roulette included, the colour is worth nothing.
The value of a colour lives at one table, so the colour turns back into ordinary chips at that table, before you leave the table.
They have no value anywhere else and you must exchange them for regular value chips before leaving the table.Loto-Québec, Casino de Montréal · Roulette · read
Coloured Roulette chips must be redeemed at the Roulette table before you leave.Fallsview Casino Resort · Roulette · read
And remember that you can only cash out roulette chips at the table where they are from; you can’t cash out roulette chips at the cage.OLG PlaySmart · Roulette — how to play · read
Every moment in the practice run is worked out the same way: a chip count is the money divided by what one chip is worth, and every other answer is one rule of the table or a common way of getting that rule wrong. Nothing is bet here and nothing spins.
How the practice run works
Where the moments come from. Every chip count in the practice run is the money put down divided by what one chip is worth, worked out when the page is built, and every wrong count is a named mistake: the value of one chip read as the number of chips, the number of chips said as the value, or the stack worked out at a different value. The other moments put one rule of the table in front of you — the call, the lockout at a terminal, the marker, the two minimums, the colour going back — and every answer on offer is either that rule or a common way of getting the rule wrong.
One strip, and no rounds. Every square on the strip is one moment of this lesson, and all of the squares are there from the start. Your first answer fills the square it belongs to. In a lesson with more than one level, the next level begins by itself when the squares of one level are full; this lesson has one level, so when its squares are full the summary of the run begins by itself, with no button in between. Practising a moment you got wrong turns its cross into “fixed in practice” and does not change the count, because only first answers count.
Your progress stays in this browser, and nothing is sent anywhere.
Check yourself
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
Five quick ones. Pick an answer, then check it. No timer, no points: just whether it stuck.
Back to the question we opened with. One chip from that stack is worth the amount you named at the buy-in — $5 in the example, which made 20 chips — and a chip like that is good at that one table only, and goes back to the dealer at that table before you leave.
Roulette tables, and further reading
19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC) · Play responsibly · the helplines are further up this page
Further reading
- Game Rules — Roulette · Société des casinos du Québec (Loto-Québec)The rules this track follows: what the wheel holds, how inside and outside bets work, and the whole payout table.
- Casino Regulations, sections 113 to 123 · Province of Nova ScotiaThe regulator on the wheel itself: 37 pockets with one zero, 38 with two, the zeros green and the rest alternating.
- Roulette Odds and the House Edge · OLG PlaySmartWhere the difference between true odds and the payout comes from, in the operator’s own words.
- How to Play Roulette · Fallsview Casino ResortA room that posts three different wheels, and its own note that pay tables differ from table to table.
How it’s worked out
Numbers, sources and hosts
Where this happens. Every table on this page is a live roulette table in a room you can walk into. The one electronic moment is the lockout at a terminal; what an electronic wheel costs and how fast it spins is lesson 4.5. Roulette on a screen at home is asked for different things by a different book of rules, and it belongs to a track of its own.
Numbers. Every chip count on this page is the money put down divided by what one chip is worth, worked out when the page is built, and every amount is an example: the buy-in, the value of a chip and the minimum on the sign were picked for easy arithmetic, and none of them is a suggested amount for you. Amounts are in Canadian dollars.
What is deliberately absent. There is no payout on this page and no price of a bet: what each bet pays is lesson 4.2, and why every bet on one wheel costs the same is lesson 4.3. There is no order of the numbers round the wheel and no colour for any single number, because none of the documents we could read prints either one; the pieces of layout drawn here are the numbers in their rows, in no colour at all. There is no maximum bet in figures, because every table posts its own. How many zeros a wheel has is lesson 4.5, and the board of past numbers is lesson 4.6. The colours of the chips in the drawings belong to the drawings, and no chip here stands for a colour any particular room uses.
Sources. Every claim on this page carries a button with the sentence it rests on, the publisher who wrote that sentence and the date we read it. Where two rooms put the same rule in different words, both sentences sit behind the same button. The words “wheel checks” and “dolly” are the documents’ own.
Hosts. Maya and Leo are illustrated characters. Their backstories, a former floor supervisor and a former dealer, are written for the course: neither is a real person, and neither speaks for any casino. The rules and numbers on this page come from the sources it cites, not from their experience.
No promise. Roulette is played against the house. Knowing how the chips, the call and the marker work makes a table easier to sit at; it does not make a spin cost any less, and nothing on this page says how an evening at the wheel would end.
Money on the table
Place your money on the table. Never hand it to the dealer.
Cash wagers will not be accepted. All currency tendered will be exchanged by the dealer for either value chips, roulette colour chips or a combination of both.
Club Regent Casino · Gaming · read
You set the value
Second, select a dollar value for your chips, which could be as low as $1 per chip, or as high as $100 per chip.
If special coloured roulette chips are used, you determine the value of the chips when you buy in.
In order to eliminate confusion over the ownership of the inside bets, each player purchases wheel checks of a specific colour at the table and determines their value before beginning to play.
Only at this table
Coloured chips can only be used at the table where they were purchased. They have no value and must be exchanged for cash chips before leaving the table.
Section The wheel, the bets, the round, payouts
Each roulette table also has its own set of chips that cannot be used at any other roulette table in the casino.
Roulette chips used for inside bets are only valid at the table where they are issued.
When you’re ready to leave a table do not bring the roulette chips from that table to any other – they will be worthless, even at other roulette tables.
The table is frozen
While you’re celebrating, remember that the table is “frozen”, meaning you can’t touch your chips until the croupier is finished paying out to all the winners.
You set the value
Second, select a dollar value for your chips, which could be as low as $1 per chip, or as high as $100 per chip.
If special coloured roulette chips are used, you determine the value of the chips when you buy in.
In order to eliminate confusion over the ownership of the inside bets, each player purchases wheel checks of a specific colour at the table and determines their value before beginning to play.
How each minimum is counted
On outside bets, you must put the table minimum on one individual wager (spot). But on the inside, you can spread bets across different numbers.
You must place the full minimum bet on either the inside or the outside – you can’t split it between the two.
Inside and outside bets have separate minimums and maximums, and are considered separate bets.
Club Regent Casino · Gaming · read
No more bets
Players can place bets until the dealer says “Rien ne va plus” (meaning “No more bets”). Bets cannot be placed, changed or withdrawn thereafter.
Section The wheel, the bets, the round, payouts
When the croupier announces, “no more bets”, you must stop placing bets and touching your chips on the table.
When the system announces “No more bets, thank you” you cannot place any further wagers.
Club Regent Casino · Gaming · read
Where your bet sits
You are responsible for the positioning of your bet on the roulette layout, even if you are assisted by the dealer.
Players are responsible for the correct positioning of their wagers on the layout.
Club Regent Casino · Gaming · read
Which chips go where
The chips, called wheel checks, that you purchase from the dealer will enable you to place your bets on the designated spots on the playing surface.
Inside bets are made with non-value chips, which you must purchase from the dealer before placing your bet. Outside bets are made with value chips or non-value chips.
GameSense by AGLC · Roulette · read
What a chip can be worth
Second, select a dollar value for your chips, which could be as low as $1 per chip, or as high as $100 per chip.
If special coloured roulette chips are used, you determine the value of the chips when you buy in.
In order to eliminate confusion over the ownership of the inside bets, each player purchases wheel checks of a specific colour at the table and determines their value before beginning to play.
No amount on the chip
There is no actual dollar amount on roulette chips because the chips don’t have value until you buy in.
“non-value chips” means chips without a value contained thereon;
Despite clause (2)(c), the Executive Director may approve a non-value chip designated exclusively for playing roulette.
Section ss. 55(2), 113–123
Province of Nova Scotia · Casino Regulations (Gaming Control Act) · read
A colour for each player
First, choose a specific colour of chips, so the croupier can keep track of everyone’s bets.
The croupier can keep track since each player has a unique chip colour for the table.
Two bets on one number
If someone else’s chips already cover the bet you want to place, don’t worry, it’s okay to stack your chips on top of theirs.
When two or more Players wish to bet on the same number, the second Player places their chip(s) on top of the first Player’s bet.
Club Regent Casino · Gaming · read
Where your bet sits
You are responsible for the positioning of your bet on the roulette layout, even if you are assisted by the dealer.
Players are responsible for the correct positioning of their wagers on the layout.
Club Regent Casino · Gaming · read
Only at this table
Coloured chips can only be used at the table where they were purchased. They have no value and must be exchanged for cash chips before leaving the table.
Section The wheel, the bets, the round, payouts
Each roulette table also has its own set of chips that cannot be used at any other roulette table in the casino.
Roulette chips used for inside bets are only valid at the table where they are issued.
When you’re ready to leave a table do not bring the roulette chips from that table to any other – they will be worthless, even at other roulette tables.
Changing the colour back
They have no value anywhere else and you must exchange them for regular value chips before leaving the table.
Coloured Roulette chips must be redeemed at the Roulette table before you leave.
And remember that you can only cash out roulette chips at the table where they are from; you can’t cash out roulette chips at the cage.
Limits on the sign
A casino operator shall ensure that a sign indicating the maximum and minimum wagers permitted at a game of chance offered for play in the casino is posted at each table at which the game is played and is clearly visible to the players at that table.
Section ss. 55(2), 113–123
Province of Nova Scotia · Casino Regulations (Gaming Control Act) · read
Minimums and maximums, and maximum payouts are posted at the table.
GERC offers chip denominations of $1, $2, $5, $10, and $25. All minimum and maximum table limits are posted at each table.
Inside and outside
The roulette table has two main areas, an inside area for placing bets on numbers, and an outside area for placing bets on possible outcomes like odd/even or red/black, etc.
How each minimum is counted
On outside bets, you must put the table minimum on one individual wager (spot). But on the inside, you can spread bets across different numbers.
You must place the full minimum bet on either the inside or the outside – you can’t split it between the two.
Inside and outside bets have separate minimums and maximums, and are considered separate bets.
Club Regent Casino · Gaming · read
No more bets
Players can place bets until the dealer says “Rien ne va plus” (meaning “No more bets”). Bets cannot be placed, changed or withdrawn thereafter.
Section The wheel, the bets, the round, payouts
When the croupier announces, “no more bets”, you must stop placing bets and touching your chips on the table.
When the system announces “No more bets, thank you” you cannot place any further wagers.
Club Regent Casino · Gaming · read
Seven times round
For a result to be valid, the ball must be thrown, but not dropped, and go around the wheel at least seven times
Section The wheel, the bets, the round, payouts
A terminal locks out
When “No more bets” is highlighted, it’s no longer possible to change, add or remove chips for that spin. The terminal is locked out.
GameSense by AGLC · Roulette · read
When “No more bets” is highlighted, it’s no longer possible to change, add or remove chips for that spin. The terminal is locked out.
The marker on the number
The croupier will place the dolly on top of the winning number on the table.
When the ball comes to rest on a number, the dealer announces the winning number and marks it on the layout.
Once the ball comes to rest, the dealer marks the winning number on the layout and pays all winning bets.
GameSense by AGLC · Roulette · read
The table is frozen
While you’re celebrating, remember that the table is “frozen”, meaning you can’t touch your chips until the croupier is finished paying out to all the winners.
Waiting for the marker
Watch out for a clear plastic piece called a dolly. If it’s sitting on the table, you can’t join the game… just yet.
Once the croupier removes the clear plastic piece called a dolly from the table, you can begin to place bets.
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