How to play roulette? Well, it’s easy to learn this game: place your bet on any sector on the table and wait until the ball lands in a sector of the wheel. The fun part starts when you realize you can choose stakes wisely following a strategy.
There are over 100 different bets and dozens of roulette strategies. Let’s try and figure out together how to play roulette and win all the time, shall we? Well, or at least win more often.
How do wheel games work?
In today’s world, you’ve got to differentiate between offline and online roulette. The brick-and-mortar casino game has the following structure:
- The roulette wheel, which has 37 or 38 sectors. The European version has 36 numbers (from 1 to 36) + one zero. The American version has 36 numbers + 2 zeros (sectors “0” and “00”).
- A roulette table on which the betting sectors are placed.
- A ball, which the dealer runs on the wheel.
So, in offline casinos, until recently, it was possible to calculate more or less accurately which numbers to choose for betting. In offline roulette, the ball falls into a sector influenced by tilt, launch speed, launch location, and other physical factors.
A live casino is essentially a broadcast from a real casino or professional gaming studio. You can try offline strategies, calculating ball and wheel speeds, watching betting history, etc.
But we do not recommend doing this. We emphasize the fact that modern casinos have taken technology to a very high level. So you won’t find an unbalanced wheel or other defects in the equipment today.
Offline game vs roulette online
In an online game, all of the visible elements — the wheel, the table, the ball — are just graphics. The game mechanism itself is based on a random number generator. It is a program that is also used in internet security, encryption, passwords, etc.
The random number generator starts running from the moment you begin the game product. It continuously generates a long sequence of random numbers. When you place a bet and press play, the generator stops. You then see an animation: the wheel spins, the ball falls into a sector, giving you the result of your bet.
Independent auditors regularly test manufacturers of RNG games. Thus, clients of gambling platforms get 100% fair games that cannot be hacked.
That is, if you want to know how to play roulette and win with RNG hacking — the answer is “No, it’s impossible”. To get more profit from betting, you need to know the probabilities of different types of bets.
What best odds should we choose?
Beginners often place their first bets on single numbers. However, this is a big mistake, as single numbers have the lowest winning probability. To increase your chances of winning, you should bet on groups of numbers: dozens, columns, rows, black or red bets.
So, what are the best bets to place? Which roulette odds give the best chance of winning?
For starters, you need to distinguish between inside and outside bets. If you’d rather have more winnings, albeit smaller ones, choose outside bets. The outside sectors are placed ‘outside’ of the numbered playing field. These include red-black, even — odd, column, dozens, etc.
If you’d rather take your chances on a bigger prize, then inside bets are appropriate. You place them inside the playing field, on squares with numbers. It includes bets such as:
- straight-up or single-number — 1 number;
- split — 2 numbers which are near each other;
- street — a row of 3 numbers;
- corner — 4 numbers;
- basket — 5 numbers;
- double street — 2 rows or 6 numbers.
So how to play roulette at the casino? You need to know your betting odds! Then you can calculate how often you’ll win and what the payouts on your bets will be.
How to play roulette — strategy
How to play roulette to win? We can say that Martingale strategies don’t work because the results of each round are in no way related to the previous and subsequent spins.
You won’t find a 100% winning strategy for one reason: The mathematical advantage in this game favors the casino. European roulette with one zero has a 2.70% house edge, American roulette (with two sectors of zeros) has a 5.26% house edge. In the long run, the casino always wins. That’s why the players’ main goal is primarily to have fun. Enjoy the game, and don’t chase the winnings.
You can try several roulette strategies and follow the one that best suits your preferences.
- Progressive — here, you change your bets depending on the outcome of the previous round. These include the Fibonacci, the Martingale, and the Paroli strategies. They are well suited for high stakes betting with their frequent winnings. The D’Alembert strategy is more commonly used in inside betting.
- Non-progressive or flat systems. You bet the same amount all the time during a playing session. An example is the James Bond system.
We advise choosing French roulette because it has 1 sector with zero and softer rules that increase players’ odds.
We recommend that you try out the free roulette games that are available on our website. We have created a special Roulette section where we have all of our roulette products, tables and live in one place. You can also go to the Live section if you only want to play with live dealers.