Learning Roulette
The roulette is the best known casino game. It is the centerpiece of most brick & mortar casinos and it is one of the more popular games in online casinos too. Invented in the 18th century by French mathematician Blaise Pascal, who used it as a random number generator, the roulette wheel fulfills that very same task to this day.
In its original state, the roulette would be a game in which both the house and the player would start with the same odds. Because it’s a player vs house game though, the roulette wheel has been modified to offer the house an edge over the player.
In European roulette wheels, a “0” slot has been added. Because the player can either bet on black or white (or odds and even) to approximate a 50-50 bet, the “0” slot will be instrumental in inducing the house edge. There’s an equal number of red and black pockets on the roulette wheel, but because of the presence of the 0 pocket (with which the house wins), the player’s odds are slightly lower that that of the house.
American roulette wheels take the concept further: they add another 0-like pocket, the 00. This way, the house edge is increased further.
Roulette wheels have pockets numbered between 1-36. This means European roulette wheels have 37 pockets, while US roulette wheels have 38.
The rules roulette plays by are pretty simple. The roulette wheel is situated on a fancy table which has a layout on it. Player bets are placed on that layout. Depending on where players stack their chips, they can place an inside bet (which means that they bet on a single number or on a smaller selection of numbers) or an outside one (which means they’ll bet on red/black, odd/even or on a larger number selection (a line, a column etc).
The payout which various roulette bets offer is based on probability. If you win a red/black bet you’ll get almost even money, but if you win a single number bet you get almost 37-1 on your bet.
The interesting thing about roulette is that not all bets carry the same house edge. In some of the bets, the odds are stacked higher against the player than in others. Experienced roulette players know this and they always make sure they bet on the lowest house-edge combinations. Players may place chips onto the layout even after the dealer launches the ball. At a certain point, the dealer will call out “no more bets”. After that, bets are not allowed.
When the balls stops in a pocket, the winners are revealed and the dealer places a “dolly” on the layout to mark the winning spot.
While the “dolly” is on the table, nobody may place another bet or collect any winnings. The dealer will proceed to collect all the losing bets off of the table, and he will then pay out all the winners. Only after the marker has been removed may the winners collect their chips off the table.
In order to further diminish the house edge, you need to sign up to an online casino which offers rakeback-like loyalty deals. Land based casinos offer such comp point schemes as well. Although, kind of like the poker rakeback and the poker prop deals, the apparent impact of these comp point rewards is small, in the long-run their effects pile up.
As far as roulette strategy is concerned: there isn’t really any. Don’t be fooled by various “smooth operators” who offer to sell you roulette systems for small change. There are no working roulette systems. Just try to enjoy yourself at the roulette table and keep an eye on the house drop.
Here is a great site to check out if you would like more information on how play roulette games online. This site has a lot of good roulette tips and the rules to both the American and European versions of roulette. You can even play the games for fun.
Roulette can be a very fun game to play online, although not many internet casinos allow roulette to be played with their bonuses anymore. This is because there was widespread cheating by placing bets on both red and black to try to win the bonus without really betting anything. I have found a website that shows all the casinos that still offer an online roulette bonus.
