History of roulette
Roulette is a luck-based game which was invented in the 17th century in France. Its invention is attributed to Blaise Pascal. The scientist who was trying to create the perpetuum mobile, ended up devising the world’s most iconic gambling game! Isn’t life amazing at times? Being a true revolution among table games, roulette has spread all over Europe and then the entire world like a wildfire.
Basic roulette rules
The truth is that roulette is one of the easiest casino games to play. The main difficulty about roulette has to do with a huge variety of betting options and roulette betting strategies that often confuse beginning gamblers. However, the gameplay per se is not tricky at all. Make sure for yourself!
- Select the roulette game that you want to play. When choosing the table, pay attention to the betting limits. If you’re a newbie, be sure to start with low-limit tables that accept $1 bets.
- Place your bet (or bets). The good thing is that in online roulette you have all the time you need to choose and place your bets. Gamblers playing land-based or live roulette online don’t have this luxury. They must make their betting decisions very fast.
- Click the “Play” or “Spin” button to send the wheel on the screen spinning.
- Wait for the ball to lose momentum and land into one of the slots on the wheel. If the slot number is the one that you’ve bet on, you get a payout. If not, you lose your bet to the casino.
As you can see, roulette is all about fun! Even if you’ve never approached the roulette table before in your life, you’ll have little to no trouble mastering this game!
Roulette variations
Roulette comes in numerous variations. The selection is truly stunning! However, the three main pillars of every casino’s roulette games portfolio include American, European, and French roulette. These games have minor differences in terms of table layout, house edge, and additional roulette rules.
European roulette
European roulette is played on a 37-cell wheel. The wheel contains only one zero cell. The European roulette has a nice house edge of just 2.7%.
American roulette
The American roulette is notoriously known for having not one but two zero cells on the wheel, which makes the total number of slots come to 38. What does a double zero mean for the player? Well, unfortunately, it means a higher house edge (5.26%). In American roulette, if you make an even money bet and the ball lands on 0 or 00, you lose your entire wager.
French roulette
And finally, French roulette! This is the most player-friendly roulette version with a tiny house edge of 1.35%. But how come the casino advantage is so low in this game? In addition to having only one zero cell, French roulette is blessed with two unique roulette rules, La Partage and En Prison. According to the La Partage rule, if you bet on even money and 0 comes up, you only lose 50% of your wager and get the other 50% back.
Winning tips for roulette dummies
While there is nothing complicated about roulette, it doesn’t mean that you should drop your defences and take this game lightly. We’ve come up with a few useful tips that will help you minimize your losses and lock in some nice profits.
- If your roulette casino of choice has French roulette, be sure to stick with this variation. It comes with the highest winning odds for the player. Avoid American roulette unless you want to blow away your bankroll in a couple of reckless spins. It’s only good for risky high-rollers who have money to burn.
- The best way to raise some cash is to keep betting on even money (Red/Black, High/Low, Even/Odd). These bets have the lowest house edge. On the flipside, these types of bets pay poorly (1 to 1). While playing roulette like that kills the excitement, it’s a great way to train your intuition, make some money, and start feeling more comfortable about the gameplay.
- Don’t get carried away by roulette strategies that work. Remember that no best roulette strategy ever that could help you beat the house and make consistent profits on roulette. While a winning roulette strategy can spice up your gambling experience, you shouldn’t rely on it for consistent profits.
What is the best roulette strategy?
If you’re somewhat familiar with blackjack, you must know that this game has a solid basic strategy that reduces the house edge to 0.5%. Unfortunately, this is not the case for online roulette. Roulette is a game of chance, meaning you can’t possibly predict where the ball will land next. There is no such thing as the best roulette strategy. Don’t fall into despair though. Let’s take a look at two betting systems that may help you boost your performance.
Martingale system
Start with the minimum bet at your roulette table. Keep betting the same amount until your first loss. After that, double your bet. If this time your bet wins, you’ll recover your lost bet, plus earn a small profit. After a win, you need to start the sequence again and return to your minimum bet. If, however, you bet loses, you need to double your wager again.
This roulette winning strategy has its weakness. Imagine that you hit a losing streak and have to keep increasing your bet. This way, you’re very likely to hit the maximum betting limit before you manage to land a win and recoup your losses. Plus, few gamblers have a bankroll large enough to take them through an exhausting losing streak.
The Martingale system falls into the category of high-risk roulette strategies. For most gamblers, a small potential profit is simply not worth the effort. We don’t recommend using this roulette strategy in the long run.
Fibonacci system
The Fibonacci betting system only works for even money bets. Using the system for inside bets is quite risky, and we wouldn’t recommend that. You need to make bets according to the Fibonacci sequence:1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21-34-55-89-144-233-377-610-987. The main idea behind this strategy is that you must increase your bet every time you lose. Once you get a win, you need to start the sequence from the beginning.
Note that you don’t necessarily need to start with a $1 bet. You can start with any wager. The main thing is to stick to the sequence. However, it’d be wise to start with the minimum bet that your table allows.
The cons of the Fibonacci strategy for roulette is that it doesn’t reduce the house edge and is useless in the long run. And like with the Martingale roulette wheel strategy, you need to choose a table with the highest maximum betting limit.