Roulette is one of the most popular table games in modern casinos. Although variations on the game have been around for several hundred years, there are now only 3 variations in American casinos.
You're likely already familiar with American roulette and European roulette. The most recent addition to the table game inventory is Sands Roulette.
That's not possible, because the casino always has a statistical advantage over you when playing roulette. You statistically lose money with every bet you make, which is why any attempt to systematically win on roulette is not possible, with the exception of some of the cases described in my how to beat roulette article. How Roulette Payouts Give the Casino an Edge. These payouts all have one thing in common—they pay out less than the true odds of hitting a win. That's why the casino enjoys a house edge of 5.26% on roulette. Your odds of winning are always less than the payout amounts. For example, the odds of winning a straight-up bet are 37 to 1.
Which of these games should you play?
How should you bet on them?
What's the smartest strategy for roulette betting?
I'll explain all that in this post:
But some believe that it is possible to exploit the way the roulette wheel, and the betting cloth, is laid out to give themselves an advantage. The idea is that you can make bets on the layout in. Real money online casinos allow American gamblers to play casino games for money and win real cash. With real money gambling, players have to make US$ deposits into their casino account, and once the money reflects, then they can start playing their favorite games online like poker, blackjack, and roulette.
What Are the Differences between American, European, and Sands Roulette?
Although these games have a few other differences, the most significant distinction between the 3 versions of roulette are the number of green slots the wheels contain.
Every roulette wheel has at least 37 slots.
36 of those slots are always numbered 1 to 36, and they're alternately colored RED or BLACK.
The additional slots are green.
In European roulette there is only one green slot, the '0'.
In American roulette there are two green slots: '0' and '00'.
In Sands roulette a third green slot, 'S', has been added to the wheel.
The green slots are there for one reason:
They make the game's statistical probabilities uneven.
This is because of the way roulette bets are paid off. You can win anywhere from 35-to-1 (for betting on a single number) down to 1-to-1 (for betting on 18 slots at a time).
The payoffs, called 'odds', are not as fair to you as the actual estimated probabilities of the roulette ball landing on any given slot. This is how the casino makes its money.
In a game of roulette the house should keep at least 2.70% of all the bets players make over time. The casino has no need to cheat the players. In fact, the players often make really bad bets that improve the 'house edge', as that casino profit is called.
One of the other differences between European roulette and both American and Sands roulette is that the European roulette table has an additional betting area. This secondary betting area is used to place specially designed bets. They are more complicated than the normal bets made in American and Sands roulette. I'm going to ignore this section of the table, because I'm going to show you how to place bets that have the best chances of paying off.
Is There a Winning System for Roulette?
Everyone who gets into roulette sooner or later starts to think about how they can 'beat the system'.
I'm going to be honest here:
There is no way to do that.
The green slots on the wheel make it impossible for anyone, anywhere, to ever design a betting system that is guaranteed to win. If you really want to guarantee yourself a win every time, then put a chip on each of the 2-to-1 outside bets and on each of the green number bets.
That's the only way you'll be paid money every time the wheel spins.
You'll also go broke.
You may have heard about a system called the Martingale System. It's a popular betting system with new roulette players.
Experienced roulette players just turn their heads and roll their eyes when someone mentions the Martingale System. The only way you can make money with the Martingale System is to write a book about it and get people to buy your book.
Even that's a gamble, though, because most people now know that the Martingale System promises more than it delivers.
Here's how this system works:
You start out betting the minimum. If you lose, you double your bet. If you win on your doubled bet, you go back to betting the table minimum. If you lose again, you double the size of your bet again.
This sounds great to inexperienced bettors but the problem is that you'll either run out of money or hit the table limit before you can recoup your losses as they add up.
The Martingale System is a sucker bet, plain and simple.
Every betting system in every form of gambling tries to leverage probability theory. The Martingale System and other roulette betting strategies also rely on probability estimates.
But there's a flaw in the thinking behind these systems. If you account for the flaw you'll be okay. You won't always win but your expectations will be more reasonable.
The secret to not going broke when you gamble is to set reasonable expectations and maintain your self-discipline. You should never drink or take drugs when you gamble. They lower your inhibitions and impair your judgment.
You might as well just hand your money over to the casino at the cashier window and say 'keep it' if you're going to drink or do drugs when you gamble.
How Do Probabilities Work in Roulette?
Probability theory came out of statistics. It tries to give us rules by which to guess what happens next in any situation. The guesses are seldom accurate predictions. Sometimes the guesses work out, and sometimes they don't. Gamblers love probability theory because they think it helps them pick the best betting strategies.
You're actually more likely to double your money during a roulette session if you put all your money on a single bet. The more bets you place, the less likely it becomes to double your money.
That's because every bet brings you close to the long term expectations. The closer you are to the short term, the more likely you are to get better than expected results.
In roulette, the probabilities are simple. The dealer spins the wheel and releases a ball that whirls around the outside of the wheel and finally settles in a slot. With only 37 slots on a European roulette wheel you have a 1-in-37 probability of the ball landing on a specific slot.
This probability never changes.
This probability is calculated on the basis of all the known possibilities.
What probability theory cannot do, however, is predict where the ball will stop.
Nor can it predict whether the ball will land on red, black, or green any number of times over the next 100 spins.
Nonetheless, a lot of gambling guides tell you that you have the best chances of winning if you do this because of such-and-such probabilities. And many of these guides warn you that there is no way to predict the future, but by setting the expectation that the ball will land on red about 47% of the time, these guides are making predictions and promises they cannot keep.
They'll even back up their claims by talking about how to run computer simulations for 1 million spins of the wheel so that you see how often the ball lands on red, black, or green.
In the real world the Probability Fairy is always on vacation. She'll never be there to wave her magic wand to make things happen the way experts say they should. The ball could land on red over the next 20 spins. Or it could land on black or green or some random mix of color combinations.
You have no way of knowing how many of the next [X] spins will turn out a certain way. Talking about probabilities in this way is just dishonest.
What you can do is look at the wheel and ask yourself how much it costs to bet on the largest possible set of numbers. The idea here is to get as much coverage as you can without losing money too fast.
But even if you cover every number on the wheel you'll lose money.
So the only way to win in roulette–and this is completely random, never guaranteed–is to bet on less than all the numbers on the wheel.
You also want to play bets that pay better than even money. You can place a variety of bets, but most of them aren't worthwhile.
Betting on single numbers is a bad idea. You can place bets on the lines between the numbers (these are called 'street bets') and on lines at the corners of numbers (these are called 'corner bets').
But even though you get pretty good odds (payoff) you're still covering too few numbers.
How Bets Work in Roulette
Divide the bets into two groups:
- Inside bets
- Outside bets
Inside bets are based on individual numbers or small groups of numbers. When you see players betting on the lines, corners, and individual numbers on the table they are making inside bets.
Outside bets are based on pre-selected groups of numbers on the wheel. The '2-to-1' bets cover 12 numbers each: 1 to 12, 13 to 24, and 25 to 36. The '1-to-1' or 'even money' bets cover 18 numbers each:
- Odd
- Even
- Black
- Red
- 1 to 18
- 19 to 36
The bets more likely to pay are the even money bets.
But unless you can win 5 times out of 9 on even money bets you'll lose your stake. That's the problem with roulette. You always have to win at least 1 more time than you lose no matter how you place your bets.
Casino diamonds poza rica. The '2 to 1' bets pay better than the '1 to 1' bets because they cover fewer numbers. You have less of a chance of winning.
There are 6 types of '2 to 1' bets:
- 3 kinds of dozens bets: (1 to 12, 13 to 24, and 25 to 36)
- 3 kinds of columns bets: ([1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, 34], [2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29, 32, 35], [3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36]).
You can make a bet by betting on any two of the '2 to 1' groups. That means that instead of covering only 18 numbers you'll be covering 24 numbers.
This type of bet is often called the 'double dozen' bet. It's popular among gamblers who like to hedge their bets. They have a better chance (all other things considered) of scoring a win with a 'double dozen' than with one of the standard even money bets. If you're playing it safe and going for even money odds, you should always play a double dozen bet.
If you want to bet more aggressively, then instead of betting more money on your double dozen, you can cover all 36 of the red and black numbers. Leave the green numbers alone. Yes, they'll come in every now and then, and you'll lose money.
But there's a way to keep your losses low.
How to Bet on Columns or Dozens Aggressively
Take 6 chips and distribute them across EITHER the three dozen bets or the three column bets.
Place 3 chips on 1, 2 chips on the 2nd, and 1 chip on the 3rd. If the ball lands on a green number you'll lose your entire bet, so always play the table minimum with this aggressive style.
If the ball lands on any number with your single chip bet, you'll win 2 chips and lose 5–for a net loss of 3 chips (half your bet).
That's the safest way to bet aggressively on the table.
If the ball lands on any number in your 2 chip bet you'll win 4 chips and lose 4 for no loss. This keeps you in the game.
If the ball lands on any number in your 3chip bet, you'll win 6 chips and lose 3 for a net gain of 3 chips. This will offset 1 single chip win.
The way this betting strategy works out, your money can grow substantially and still take some big hits. Where the strategy will fail you is when the ball lands on green or if the ball lands on the single chip bet more often than it lands on the 3 chip bet.
Sorry, but there's no way to prevent that from happening.
There Is No Guaranteed Way to Win in Roulette
I can't say this often enough:
You can't win at roulette in the long run.
I think roulette is a fun game to play. It's exciting because you don't know where the ball will land. You take an active role in making your wagers.
And you'll find there are a lot of different betting systems to experiment with. The only thing that is guaranteed in roulette is that the casino will make a profit. What you hope for is that they make their profit at someone else's expense.
Players who try to improve their luck by making big bets do sometimes win, but most often the people who come out ahead are the patient players who use conservative betting strategies and take money off the table. If you only walk away with your beginning stake you'll be luckier than most gamblers.
And you can take that to the bank.
A roulette strategy has one aim and one aim only: to win. Most roulette strategies are based around telling players how they should bet and when to bet it. The game of roulette has more potential strategies than any other casino game.
However, most roulette players lose because the strategies they use are tailored towards promotions, rather than actual tips that can help them win.
This article will explain which roulette strategies work and show why others do not.
But first, it's important to understand the basics of roulette strategy. A lot of roulette players believe in absolute nonsense.
Here are 10 common misconceptions about the roulette strategy.
1. Previous Spins Do Not Affect Future Spins
No matter how many times you spin the wheel, the chances that the ball landing on one number/color/etc remain the same every time. You can see this for yourself. Load up an online roulette wheel and play some spins for free. Record the results of red and black and try and spot some streaks. If you find one, check how many times that color spins next. After enough spins, you will find that the odds will not have changed at all. Previous spins do not affect future spins.
2. Progression Bets Do Not Help You Win In Roulette
Changing your bet size after each bet is called 'progression'. Increasing your bet size is known as 'positive progression'. Likewise, decreasing your bet size is known as 'negative progression'.
No matter if it's positive or negative, changing your bet size has no impact on your chances of winning.
Many roulette players wait for some sort of ‘trigger' before implementing a betting progression strategy. One example could be waiting for black to win 3 times in a row. From here, the player would double the bet until they win.
This will not help the player win. Each spin is independent of the next and the odds have not changed since the last spin.
The only thing that is changing is the amount of money wagered. Sure, the player could be lucky and win big, but it's just as likely they can be unlucky and lose big too.
3. Roulette Triggers Don't Exist
Waiting for a certain event to happen does not impact your chances of winning in roulette. The only ‘trigger' that can help you is if it is related to the physical wheel itself, rather than the sequence of numbers.
For example, if you decide to bet the number 3 after noticing that over 10,000 spins it wins at a higher percentage, then this is called bias analysis. This would make sense since there must be something about the wheel that causes the number 3 to win more often than other numbers.
On the other hand, waiting for the sequence red, black, black, black and then betting big on red does not affect your chances of winning.
Another trigger players like to use is skipping spins. Again, this does not win in the long-term.
Imagine that over the course of 500 spins, you only bet on 50 ie 10% and you manage to make a profit. This does not mean your ‘trigger' means anything. All that's really happened is that you won over the course of 50 spins.
4. Bankroll Management Does Not Help In Roulette
Bankroll management has two effects on roulette strategy: you either lose your money quicker (ie positive progression) or slower (ie negative progression).
All bankroll management does is control how much you should bet on each spin. Again, it comes down to the fact that bet sizing has no impact on your chances of winning.
5. Long Term Balance Does Not Exist In Roulette
After 5,000 spins of the wheel, the results of red or black will be close to even. Therefore, it seems reasonable to think that over the long term, you could check what color has spun the most and bet on the other one, right?
Not really. If there are more of one color than the other, then this is more because of a defect in the wheel. Therefore, if your roulette strategy was to bet on red because it had fewer wins than black, it would actually be a lot better to bet on black as the wheel is favored towards it.
6. Only Bet Short-Term Roulette Strategies
Lots of roulette strategies aim to make a 1-unit profit per session. Unless your units are in hundreds or thousands, it's not enough to make a real difference anyway
But for the sake of argument, let's assume that winning 1 unit a session is the be-all and end-all for winning roulette.
Now think of it like this: if it guarantees to win 1 unit a session, wouldn't you want to use it all the time? After all, if it's that good, why limit yourself to just 1 unit?
The answer is that short-term strategies do not work for roulette. They can either win over the long-term or they don't. Either way, the house always has the edge.
7. Roulette Streaks Make No Difference To Your Chances Of Winning
Sometimes in roulette, the ball will land on the same number twice, three times or more in a row. This isn't some freaky wizardry, it's simple statistics.
On an American roulette wheel, the odds of spinning the same number three times in a row can be calculated by:
(1 in 38) x (1 in 38) x (1 in 38) = 1 in 54,872
But what about the odds of spinning the same number twice in a row, say 5, but then landing on a different number, say 7?
Since every spin is independent of the previous, spin, the chances are exactly the same as above: 1 in 54,872.
So it makes no logical sense to think that if one number is on a winning streak, it's in your favor to bet it again.
This also applies to other roulette bets, including red or black, first, second, or third dozen, etc.
8. You Can't Use Progression To Win Before A 'Rare Event' Happens'
Once again, this comes down to the fact the odds do not change. Rare events do not exist in roulette. The only reason players think they do is because they have not seen enough spins for it to have happened yet.
For example, the player may not have seen this sequence of winning numbers before: 1,4,6,2,5. But they may also have never seen this sequence of winning numbers before either: 12, 25, 14, 9, 0.
After enough spins, both of these sequences will happen at some point. With a large enough sample size, you will see that they will also occur the same number of times too.
Each sequence of winning numbers in roulette is just as rare as each other.
9. Just Because A Roulette Strategy Wins Doesn't Guarantee It Works
Roulette betting strategies either win in the long term or they don't, it's as simple as that. For example, if you decide to use a negative progression strategy after losing a few bets, the end result remains a loss.
On the other hand, you could wait for 'triggers' before using an aggressive betting strategy and win big. Of course, you will not be making as many bets as the progression strategy, meaning you can make your bankroll last for, potentially, thousands of spins.
Now, just because you may have won big does not mean that the system you used was a good one. If you analyze this in more detail, you will likely see multiple large spikes in your bankroll.
To see how ‘good' this system really is, find a reliable roulette system tester and create another one with completely random bets. Over 10,000, 20,000 or even 50,000 spins, you may find that betting randomly can be profitable.
Does this mean that the random selection process is a winning strategy that works? Of course not.
You will have just been lucky.
It's easy to think that you have a winning strategy when all that happened was that you got lucky from time to time. This happens to a lot of players.
Luck can even make losing strategies profitable. Those using it may stop playing roulette and end with a profit, making them believe the strategy was effective.
Over time though, if they continue playing, reality will catch up and the system will lose.
10. Winning Most Of The Time In Roulette Is Enough
Imagine you had a roulette strategy that won 75% of the time. Over the course of 4 days, you profit on 3 and lose on 1. Your results may be something like:
Day 1: +10 units
Day 2: +20 units
Day 3: +50 units
Day 4: -100 units
Everything was going so well until something happened that you didn't expect and you lost big. How did this happen? You just got unlucky, right?
Except that you didn't. Casinos don't leave it up to chance to make money. In the end, the house wins because of its long-term edge over players.
Winning Systems: The Casino's Illusion
Casinos profit because they know the majority of players can't tell the difference between a winning roulette strategy and a losing one. Here's an example that shows how this can happen.
Imagine 100 players all played roulette and used exactly the same strategy as each other, but none of them knew each other or the systems each of them were using.
After using the strategy over the course of 1 month, these were the results:
40 of the players won a total of $400,000. Since they all won, they are sure that their strategy wins. Since they believe they have a winning strategy, they will return to the casino hoping to win more money.
The remaining 60 players lost a total of $500,000. Since they all lost, they are sure their system loses. Since they believe they have a losing strategy, they will look to improve it before returning to the casino again with a new system.
But none of this matters.
At the end of the day, the casino is the real winner.
Firstly, they have made a $100,000 profit from this group of 100 players.
They also have the winning players coming back, even though it's not a long-term profitable strategy, as shown by the 60 losing players.
Sure, they may have initially paid out $400,000, but to the casino, it's like an investment. They pay out with the expectation the players return and bet the same strategy – only this time, the players will lose.
Casinos don't care about winners or losers; they just need more people to lose than to win.
How To Win At Roulette
So now that the important things have been covered, it's time to learn how to win at roulette.
On a typical American roulette wheel, your chances of picking the right number are 1 in 38.
The only way is to improve your own chances of winnings. If you don't, the odds remain in favor of the casino.
How do you do this?
By studying the thing that actually determines the result of a spin: the wheel and the ball.
But this isn't brand new information to casinos. They know better than anyone how players can use the roulette wheel to give them a real advantage.
Losing Roulette Strategies
So by now, you should understand why a lot of strategies lose. They use a ‘trigger' that doesn't exist, they implement some form of bet progression or they focus on the numbers rather than the roulette wheel and ball.
The following section will show you some of the best-known roulette strategies. However, they all lose in the long-term. From everything discussed so far, you will see why they lose now too.
The Martingale Strategy
Martingale is a betting progression strategy. If you lose a bet, you must double it for the next one.
This is not a good strategy for multiple reasons:
- If you go on a bad run using martingale, you can lose your bankroll quickly.
- After lots of doubles, you will reach the maximum bet amount. Even if it wins, you may not be able to recoup your losses.
- The odds do not change when you double the size of your bet. All that's happening is changing your bet on a different spin.
Tier et Tout Strategy
This is another betting progression strategy but with bankroll management included too.
Like the martingale, no matter how many times you increase or decrease the size of your bet, the chances of winning never change. The only thing you are doing is making different bets of different sizes.
You are just as likely to win (or lose) making a random bet of a random size.
John Solitude Raindrop Strategy
This roulette strategy uses the balance misconception. It expects to win ‘in the end' but this does not work because it won't allow you to choose bets in a way that actually improves your chances of winning.
These are just a selection of losing strategies by there are countless others out there, each claiming to be the next thing since sliced bread. But they all share the same misconceptions of roulette strategy.
You may also find strategies that may sound different at first but they are actually exactly the same as other losing systems.
You must be aware of this before learning which strategies you should actually be using.
Winning Roulette Strategies
Many roulette players use strategies that do not work. Unfortunately, many people are losing because they have been convinced that it is a winning roulette strategy.
Everything that this article has covered so far should help you identify a losing system, should you come across one. Hopefully, you will never need to waste another penny again.
Now for the good news.
Here are the best winning roulette strategies.
Roulette Computers
These are small electronic devices that can measure the speed of the wheel and the ball as it travels. This predicts where the ball will land.
This is the most effective way to beat roulette.
Bear in mind though that, while they're not illegal, if you get caught using them, you will probably get banned from the casino so keep them hidden as much as possible.
How Do Casinos Make Money On Roulette No Deposit
Visual Ballistics
This involves looking at the wheel with your own eyes to predict where the ball lands. With practice, it becomes a lot easier than you may think (but a lot tougher compared to other effective winning roulette strategies.)
How Do Casinos Make Money On Roulette Numbers
Dealer's Signature
A lot of roulette dealers spin the wheel and ball consistently, leading to predictable patterns. This is known as the ‘dealer's signature' and is the reason why they are changed every 30 minutes or so.
It works on the following principles:
- The ball hits some diamonds more often than others ie dominant diamonds.
- The ball bounce is not totally unpredictable.
When the wheel spins at, near enough, the same speed, the ball will travel a predictable distance and drop into a predictable area of the wheel.
Keep in mind that this strategy doesn't work on every wheel though. You need to find the right wheel and the right dealer to get the most from this strategy.
Bias Analysis
Every single roulette wheel has some sort of defect. Even if it's a tiny defect, it can affect how the ball lands.
This is known as bias.
If you can spot the defect and learn how it affects the results, you can profit from roulette.
Of course, this strategy relies on you spotting the defect before the casino does and removes it from play.
