The game-play of roulette is rather uncomplicated, but one must be a bit familiar with roulette rules before placing any sophisticated bets. In addition to roulette rules, this page addresses proper etiquette around the table, and gives a walkthrough so you know exactly what to do.

The first thing you should know is how the table minimum works. If you are playing at a table with a $5 minimum, you are required to place $5 on each of your outside bets, and/or a total of at least $5 on your inside bets (inside and outside bets are explained in a second). So if you play black/red, odd/even or high/low, you must place the table minimum for each and every bet. On the other hand, you could place 5 $1 bets on 5 completely different inside bets (specific numbers or combinations of numbers).

Before you get confused, standard North American roulette rules have the table use different chips than other table games at the casino. Each player is assigned a different color of chip, letting the dealer differentiate bets and match them to the right players. These chips are worthless at the other tables in the casino, so don't bother trying to stack them up under your blackjack chips or anything silly like that. The roulette dealer will exchange your game chips for regular chips when you are finished playing.

You usually have to give some indication to the dealer as to what value of chip denomination you want to be provided with. For a $5 minimum table, you will usually have a minimum value of $1 on roulette chips. Judge this based on your average bet and whether or not you like to split things up a lot. Again, so you don't get confused, when you get your roulette chips they will not be marked with a denomination, you choose it, and all of the chips will reflect that worth (the dealer keeps track of this by associating the amount and color with a 'lammer').

Roulette doesn't move at a quick pace, it's for a more relaxed crowd than you're likely to find at the craps table. Roulette rules kind of necessitate this sluggishness, as making all of the bets is what slows things down. When you're at the point that you want to place your bet, don't be concerned about someone else having already taken your bet, chips can share bets thanks to the colors. Roulette rules give you lots of time to set your bet, and can even keep doing so after the wheel has been spun, just don't try it after the dealer waves his hands over the table (if there are any new players the dealer will most likely say 'no more bets' out-loud too). Once the ball has found its pocket, the dealer will call out the winning number and place a clear marker on that number's spot on the table layout. The dealer then sweeps the table clean and the winner is paid. Wait until the dealer says 'place your bets' before putting any chips down for the next spin.

Roulette Strategy

Learning the game of roulette is far from difficult, but finding a strategy that actually optimizes your game-play is about as difficult as tasks come. The math behind the game is straightforward. Consequently, many people have proposed a roulette strategy, such as the Martingale system, that professes to exploit this simplicity. To get a proper sense about how systems work with roulette, read our roulette systems page. The problem with trying to develop a proper roulette strategy is that all of the bets on the table calculate out to the same house edge of 5.25% (on American tables). The only exception to this rule is the five-number bet, which has an even worse edge of 7.29%!

So what do we suggest for a roulette strategy? Simple attention. Knowing roulette is more about knowing what aspects of a roulette game can change the 'unchangeable' house edge. Now of course in a game so rigid and non-interactive as roulette we can do little as players to lower the house edge, but we can be on the lookout for casinos that offer special rules that accomplish the same thing.

The first rule you should look for in the casino is called 'surrender', which should not be confused with the similar term used in the game of blackjack. The rule applies to outside bets which pay even money only. These include red/black, odd/even and the high/low bet. If the ball lands on a 0 or 00 you only lose half of your bet, instead of all of it. As you already know, it's the 0 and 00 that ramp the house edge up so much in American roulette, so surrender does a good job at significantly lowering this house edge. The house edge on these even money bets is now only 2.63%, not too shabby. Although even money bets are now twice as nice as their inside counterparts, you have to sacrifice any potentially big payoffs to gain the benefit of a lower house edge. It's not perfect, but it's a workable roulette strategy. You can find surrender in many Atlantic City casinos, and a few other places in the world. Single zero roulette wheels rarely offer surrender.

The next most important difference in tables that you should have an eye out for is European wheels, or single zero wheels. These tables exclude the double zero you find on most North American wheels. True to its name it is much easier to find European roulette wheels across Europe than it is anywhere else. Things can be different playing over there. The table is quite often manned by two croupiers, a rake is used to clear bets, and players use normal casino chips instead of proprietary ones. The only difference truly worth noting though, is the fact that there are only 37 pockets on the wheel. This simple change drops the house edge on all bets (not just the even money outside bets) to a much more attractive 2.70%. Payoff amounts are the same as an American table, so you aren't just having the wool pulled over your eyes. If you're hardcore, you could have your roulette strategy be 'do all my gambling in Europe'.

The last, but not least, thing to include in your roulette strategy is a search for the added rule called 'En Prison'. It would have been mentioned first, but it's next to impossible to find anywhere but in Europe, which is why I suggested earlier that the best strategy is to play there. It works like this: say you're placing an even-money outside bet (yup, that's all this rule applies to) and the stupid ball falls in the 0 pocket. If En Prison is offered, the bet will not be swept away after the rest of the bets, but it won't be returned to you either. The bet is said to be 'in prison' and remains on the board to have its fate decided on the next spin. If on the next spin the bet 'wins', your money is returned to you, but with no extra winnings. If the number next spin is a loss for your imprisoned bet, it gets swept away. If 0 comes up again, the bet remains in prison.

This nice little rule reduces the house edge on even-money bets to a more advantageous 1.35%. Those who do not employ this strategy must contend with a much greater house edge. Okay so I don't exactly want you leaving here thinking 'my strategy should be to move to Europe', that's a little excessive. Your roulette strategy should start by visiting my single zero roulette wheel locations page and finding a spot near you where you can play a European table. Remember, you always have the option of gambling at an online casino that offers single zero roulette.

Roulette System

In an attempt to gain the elusive upper hand, millions of casino patrons have attempted to find a method of beating any negative expectation game, and roulette system seekers are no exception. I'm sure I won't be the first to tell you the notion of a roulette system is a myth, but maybe I can help explain why. I can be as open minded as the next guy, but any spurious logic that comes my way will be completely disregarded (that's not true, it will be squashed and then disregarded).

There are people out there selling systems who advertise themselves as having '30 years of experience', and a roulette system 'tested over 15 years', and a million other reasons to make you believe they can break the laws of probability or physics. I've never really understood this. If you have a winning system and have been using it for 15 years, why do you need to make money selling it? Don't give me any of that, "I'm a nice guy and want to share my secret bull," nobody makes an effort to build a business publishing print material because they are a nice guy; they're in it for the money. A roulette system that works on the other hand, should and could provide much easier money, so unless this roulette system sucker seeker is a lifelong friend, don't give them the time of day.

Unfortunately, it's easy to convince someone of a roulette system that works. Take this example: In roulette the odds against you are pretty standard for every bet on the board, at a somewhat nasty 5.26% house edge. This means the house will win 5.26% more of the bets on the table than they lose. Of course, if you've been paying attention at the casino you'll realize it's more than this. Say you bet on two columns on the same spin at the roulette table, the odds are you'll win 24-14. So how is it that the casinos don't go broke? This is how roulette system sellers nab their victims. Let's dispel this false logic right now.

There is another factor that has to be considered, and it's called the payoff. The house's advantage stems from the fact that a payoff for a winning bet is a bit below the odds overcome to do so. Read that sentence again, it makes sense, it's just not poetry. Basically, if you bet on two columns in roulette for 12 bucks each (24 bucks total) and win, you get paid $12. But on odds of 24 to 14 the casino should pay back 14 dollars, on an even playing field. The casino knows it can profit sufficiently even against the odds if it matches its payouts appropriately. The casino profits by taking $24 when you lose, but only paying $12 when you win.

False logic of the Martingale system

Many people become consumed by the seemingly intuitive math behind the martingale roulette system (which can also be applied to other games). The system works as follows: on even money outside bets with a near 50-50 chance, bet once. If you lose, place a bet for twice as much on the same spot. If you lose again, double the previous amounts bet. In the end, the theory is your bet has to win at some point and if you have kept doubling down on losses, the last bet will recoup everything you've lost and add an even money win on the original wager, putting you ahead, if just a little.

The logic here is riddled with problems. First of all, in roulette you can't have a pure 50-50 chance bet because of those pesky green pockets. That fact aside, the system would seem like it has some legs, from a logical point of view. What roulette system sellers don't want to you realize is, the casinos have already guarded against any Martingale users by placing table limits on the bets. Ever wonder why there is an upper table limit? Don't the casinos want you to risk large amounts of money? The Martingale system is the exact reason for a table high existing. Following the Martingale method, you keep doubling your bets on a loss, and after a short string of losses in a row your bet is extremely large. From $5, to $10, $20, $40, $80, $160, $320, $OVER the table limit. So on the last bet before you can no longer double, you are putting $320 on the table with a potential for making $5… are you crazy? And what if you lose that last bet, you're out $635 bucks, if you win you're only up $5, ouch. This is a serious flaw in applying any Martingale type system to a casino game with upper table limits.

My opinion on any roulette system is the same as my opinion on all other systems. For the most part they do not do what they purport (or say) to do. Now, I'm not saying they are useless, in fact they do usually have a use, and that's to spread your money around multiple bets, which often has the beneficial effect of stretching your money out over a longer period of time. There is no value in attempting to employ a roulette system to 'beat the casino', because if you were smart enough to, the casinos would likely put you to work for them, and that has very little to do with how casinos hire.

I have nothing against looking at some more serious attempts to bring the advantage towards the players. One of these techniques is the search for biased wheels. There is some merit to this endeavor. I'm sure a few people have made real money off of a biased wheel, but the effort involved is phenomenal. Casinos spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on a roulette wheel, and don't have any desire to replace it every year. Over a long period of time it's possible that the detailed engineering that went into the roulette wheel's construction has degraded from extensive use. Once this happens, a tilt in the wheel or any one of a million small but consistent anomalies may arise. If you had a computer to measure the exact spinning patterns of a roulette wheel, you could record results consistently and try to determine any patterns that repeat. If there are, you can alter your play to exploit this advantage. Biased wheels are not just hard to find, but even if you do, they are difficult to take advantage of. You would be required to have a mini-computer watching the wheel at least initially to find the bias, and modern casinos monitor their entire floor for any electronic device emitting a signal. Online is a different story of course, and many software applications exists that monitor online casino roulette wheels for biases. The problem is, the online casinos have this software too, and most likely test the heck out of their software before releasing it. You can find some of this type of software in our download section.

I have come across 'researchers' on the net that claim to be doing some proper scientific research on the subject of beating roulette. I don't believe they are basing their work on biased wheels, so I would be interested to know if it is illogical research or if it has a solid footing. It could be a simple roulette system, but I don't believe any simple system will be effective. The statistics are all laid out for you, and many a mathematician has looked at the game before. I will not link to their site here, as it does not contain any relevant information, and it's very difficult these days to differentiate honest folk from slick advertisers.