Roulette is one of the few casino games that can be found in every casino in the world. From its early debut in the 17th century as Blaise Pascal’s attempt to create a perpetual motion machine to today’s high-tech online casino login gaming event, the game, which combines gaming luck and betting savvy, has proven to deliver a high-energy casino adventure that attracts VIP gamers and budget players.
Some gamers play roulette for fun. They place their bets haphazardly and don’t worry about success. If they win, they win. If they lose, they regard it as all part of casino entertainment and they move on to play again. Other players, however, study the odds and probabilities of the game so that they can enhance their chances of winning.
If you want to win more while playing roulette, check out our experts’ suggestions of how to achieve more wins while playing roulette.
Roulette Odds
Roulette’s odds help you estimate what your potential payout is likely to be for a given wager. There are 2 variations of roulette, European roulette and American roulette. If you’re going to pay attention to the odds, knowing the difference between American and European roulette is essential.
A European roulette wheel has 36 numbered/colored pockets and a green zero pocket. So there’s a 37-to-1 chance that a tossed ball will land in any specific pocket on a wheel spin.
An American roulette wheel has 36 numbered/colored pockets and TWO green zero pockets. That means that, in American roulette, there’s a 38-to-1 chance that a tossed ball will land in any specific pocket on a wheel spin. That doesn’t mean that you will win once every 36 or 37 spins – you might win a 50/50 bet ten times consequently or you could lose your wager 10 times in a row.
Casino games involve luck and you could have a winning streak or a losing streak. The odds tell you what the likelihood is that you’ll win on a spin of the wheel.
Also, the longer you play, the more prevalent roulette odds become. Outcomes are never 100% accurate but over time, they are fairly close to what the percentages predict. That means that, if you’re just looking for a quick gaming event, you shouldn’t bother relying on the odds.
Just go ahead and play and enjoy your casino adventure. If, however, you’re settling in for a long-term session of roulette entertainment, you can use the odds to help you predict where and when you should place your bets. That means that, over the course of, more or less, 1000 bets, you can assume that the odds will run close to the actual probability.
One thing that gamblers should remember is that the odds remain the same for every spin. “Gambler’s Fallacy” is the mistaken belief that you can beat the odds. They figure that if they’ve landed on black multiple times in a row, the odds for red are higher on the next spin. That’s simply not true – the basic odds are always the same.
Betting Table
Playing roulette involves different calculations for different bets. When you play roulette, you can bet
- Straight Up (betting on one specific number)
- Split (betting on 2 numbers)
- Street (betting on 3 numbers)
- Corner (betting on 4 numbers)
- Six Line (betting on 6 numbers)
- Column (betting on 12 numbers)
- Dozens (betting on 12 numbers)
- Evens/Odds
- Blacks/Reds
- High/Lows (betting on 18 numbers)
For each bet type, there’s a different payout and different odds, depending on whether you’re playing American Roulette or European Roulette.
For instance, if you’re placing a Straight Up bet (you are betting on one specific number), the payout is 35:1 and your odds if you’re playing European Roulette are 2.70%. If you’re playing American Roulette your odds are 2.63%.
Another example might be bets on evens/odds, highs/lows or reds/blacks. The payout here is 1:1. In a game of European Roulette, the odds on this type of bet are 48.65% while in a game of American roulette, the odds on this type of bet are 47.37%. Mathematically speaking, regardless of the bet that you make, you have better odds playing European roulette.
Roulette’s House Edge
Every casino game has a built-in house-edge. The house-edge number represents the average gross profit that the casino can reliably expect to take in from a game. The house edge of roulette is one of the smallest in the casino. The roulette wheel’s zero/double zero pockets give the casino a slight house edge because it is not included in the odds.
When playing with a European single zero wheel, the house edge is 2.70%. If you’re playing with an American double-zero wheel, the house edge is 5.26%. It’s not as significant a house edge as in other games but you should be aware of it as you decide whether you’re going to play roulette and, if so, which roulette variation.
Bet Types
You should also know about the different types of bets when you’re making your roulette wagering decisions. There are “inside” bets and “outside” bets – these bets are labeled in this way because the bettor places his chips either inside the roulette table layout or outside the layout.
Outside bets are also known as “even money bets.” These (bets on reds, blacks, evens, odds or numbers 1-18, and 19-36) are the safest bets to make because you have a greater chance of winning. The odds of winning an outside bet are close to 50% in both American and European roulette and the payouts are 1:1.
Inside bets are wagers on first, second, or third dozens (1-12, 13-24, and 25-36).
Payouts for bets on single numbers are 35 to 1, the hardest results to achieve but with the highest payouts.
- Two number bets are paid out at 17:1
- Three number bets are paid out at 11:1
- Four number bets are paid out at 8:1
- Five number bets are paid out at 6:1
- Six number bets are paid out at 5:1
Probabilities
Knowing the probabilities of the various bets will affect your long-term roulette gaming results.
The house edge In the European version of roulette is 2.7% and the house edge in American roulette is 5.26%. The house edge of American roulette is nearly double that of European roulette so, while the RTP (Return to Player) for European roulette is 97.3%, the RTP for American roulette is only 94.74%. Your chances to win money when playing European Roulette improve over playing American roulette.
You can’t lower the house edge or change the odds in roulette but, by knowing and understanding your odds, you’ll be able to play more effectively.
