To make the most of your roulette experience, be sure your bankroll is going to last. By this, we mean don't bring $200 and place $50 bets. Instead, divide your bankroll by at least 20, and make this your standard bet size. Roulette Tip #7: Save Profits. Jan 09, 2018 Before each round, simply place your wager in chips on the Roulette table, and watch the croupier spin the wheel with the Roulette ball in motion in the opposite direction. Eventually, the ball will slow down and land in a numbered pocket. If the wager you made matches the ball’s final destination, congratulations you are a winner!
Cutting the House Edge
1. Unlike a highly skilled game like blackjack, there’s not that much you can really do to change the odds in roulette. By far the biggest advantage you can give yourself is to opt for a European- or French-style table. These will have one green zero square alongside the 36 red/black squares. It’s the presence of the green square that gives the casino its in-built advantage – in this case, 2.7%. However, American-style tables add a second green square (the double zero), and that bumps the house edge up to 5.26%. That’s a very significant gap, so if you don’t want to lose your money more quickly, stick to European/French tables with a single green square.
2. There are a variety of bets available in roulette, but most of these offer very similar payouts. In terms of overall success, there’s no mathematical reason to do anything other than play the simple ’50/50′ bets like red/black, odd/even etc. The only exception is the American bet known as the ‘basket’ – letting you bet on both zeros, plus squares 1 to 3. Avoid this at all costs, as it’ll give a 7.89% edge to the house.
3. French-style tables offer the best methods of cutting the house edge. The La Partage rule is very useful. If you’re playing an outside bet (red/black, odd/even etc.), and the ball lands on the green zero, La Partage lets you get half of your stake back.
4. Another great little feature of French tables is the En Prison rule, which follows on from the above, and lets you leave your stake on the board for another spin. If you have both La Partage and En Prison, the 2.7% edge becomes a mere 1.35%. That’s the lowest edge you’ll find in roulette, so look for French-style tables when you can.
Betting Systems
5. Roulette’s simple style of play and significant number of ’50/50′ bets has made it fertile territory for betting systems. These tend to be ‘progressive’, with the players varying the bet size rather than playing the same amount spin after spin. The problem is that many of these tend to be okay until the player hits a ‘bad run’. Unfortunately, these runs aren’t as unlikely as they may seem. Even on a genuine 50/50 system, you’re going to see a run of seven losses once in 128, and a run of 10 losses once in 1024. So if you play for over 1,000 spins, you’re likely to see some very bad ‘luck’. Progressive systems generally can’t cope with these runs, which is why the majority of them have a tendency to blow up eventually.
6. The Martingale system, whereby you double your bet after each loss until you have won, is the most popular system of all. Avoid this, though, as it’ll only work in the long-term if you have unlimited betting capital, plus the ability to circumvent the table limits. Otherwise, you will hit a bad run where you end up having to bet more than your entire bank. If you implement a ‘reset’ (so that you drop back to betting one unit after hitting a certain numbers of successive losses), you’ll simply find that you’re not making enough on your winning runs to compensate you for the losses you’ll be sucking up when you press the reset button. Don’t pay any attention to those who claim the Martingale system works. It doesn’t, and you’ll only lose money on it if you use it for an extended period.
7. Are there any systems that do work? Labouchere has you writing out sequences of numbers, and calculating bet sizes by adding together the first and last numbers on the list – if the bet wins, you cross off those two numbers, and carry on playing until all of the numbers have been crossed off. This system is fun to play (it was favoured by Ian Fleming, amongst others), but can still see you getting into loops where the bet sizes get too large. It isn’t as extreme as the Martingale system, but it still doesn’t work. Other systems, like Oscar’s Grind and Fibonacci, also fail to work. The D’Alembert system has some validity, but even this can’t negate the house advantage.
8. It’s harsh to say, but the best way to play seems to be with a flat betting system. That means you play the same amount time after time. That way, your only foe will be the house edge. Essentially, the ‘edge’ is the entrance fee you pay the casino for the enjoyment of playing their game. Using flat betting, though, you’ll never find yourself sweating because the bet size is too large for you. And you’ll never have to risk your entire bank on one spin.
Online Options
9. If you’re playing online, you might want to opt for the Live Dealer games rather than RNG (Random Number Generator) versions. Live Dealer makes the experience more spectacular, by letting you see live video of the dealer and the wheel. You can sometimes interact with other players at the table, too. More importantly, Live Dealer games are more reliable and harder for companies to cheat on, particularly if multiple players or casino sites are involved – these games are often implemented by third parties, so you may find the same feed being used for several different casino sites at once. You may also be able to detect problems or inconsistencies affecting the table, as the Live Dealer will be using genuine equipment.
10. RNGs do allow you to play games more quickly, though, as you can turn off the animations and sounds. If you want to get through a large number of spins in a short space of time, the RNG should be your choice. You may also be offered more options and varieties of game with RNGs.
11. Try multiplayer roulette for a more interactive and enjoyable session. You may also be able to watch the other players and pick up some hints and tips from them.
Table Bias
12. You may not be able to beat the maths, but you might be able to beat the craftmanship of a roulette wheel. Some wheels will start to develop a bias towards specific numbers or a certain section of the wheel – resulting in some numbers coming up more frequently than they should. Joseph Jagger famously ‘broke the bank at Monte Carlo’ by hiring a number of clerks to record the numbers on various tables, and then using the information to tell which tables had a bias. Such a bias will usually be attributable to wear and tear, or perhaps to loose frets (frets being the walls that separate the compartments on a wheel). The ball should bounce randomly off the frets, but if the frets are loose, they may instead deflect the ball into a particular number on a very regular basis.
13. Also look out for wheels that haven’t been seated properly. This will result in a wobbly rotor, causing the wheel to display a bias towards a section of numbers. This poor reseating can occur after something as routine as cleaning. It can often be detected by looking at how the light reflects off the wheel – the light will show certain impurities and defects when the wheel isn’t properly seated.
14. Dealer bias (or Dealer Signature or DS) is another way of predicting which balls will come up. Select dealers will have a remarkably consistent spinning action, creating very similar results every time they spin the wheel. In these cases, the ball will end up a reasonably fixed distance away from where it started. The dealers must have an extremely consistent action for this method of prediction to be successful. Nonetheless, there is something in it if the dealer is chosen carefully. A consistent action is particularly common when a dealer is exhausted.
15. The final prediction method uses Visual Ballistics (VB). This works on the basis that where the ball lands isn’t really that random at all. They key is noting where the ball is at the point that it drops down, and then noting where it ends up afterwards. Many wheels will, theoretically, show some sort of consistency. Oxford don Doyne Farmer has claimed to have used an early computer to predict the winning numbers with decent rates of accuracy, and, more recently, smartphones have been used to perform similar feats. Nobody argues that this method can turn up 100% success rates, but since there’s only a 2.7% edge to defeat on a European table, you do only need a small tilt of the odds in your favour in order to have an advantage.
Psychology
16. Money management is the key to minimising losses in roulette. Make sure you’re never under too much pressure by never betting more than 5% of your bank on one spin. Indeed, 2% gives you even more security, and ensures you won’t be throwing away chips blindly in order to chase a loss you couldn’t afford to make.
17. Keep only a portion of your money on the table at any one time. That way, if you need to replenish your funds, you’ll have a minute or two in which to think and clear your head before carrying on. In those situations, it’s often a good idea to pause for a bit and take a rest.
18. If you’re having a good night, don’t be afraid to take half of your money off the table. If you can get yourself into the position where the worst that can happen is that you end the night breaking even, then you’re doing well.
19. Take rests frequently, even if you’re winning. Keeping your mindset right is crucial to controlling your emotions. The second you’re feeling slightly bored or frustrated, take a break.
20. Don’t play when you’re ill or stressed about something outside the casino. The roulette table is not the place to be when you have difficult decisions to make.
Roulette was the first casino game I ever played. I didn’t realize at the time that the odds on roulette were some of the worst in the casino when it came to table games.
I did have enough sense to avoid the slot machines, though.
Since that first trip, I’ve had a lot of fun playing roulette in Las Vegas. I’ve had many winning sessions, too, which some gambling writers would have you believe is next to impossible.
In this post, I’ve distilled my years of experience playing roulette in Las Vegas into seven tips on how to win, and I’ve explained each of them below.
1- Understand How the House Gets Its Edge in Roulette
You’ll find three different kinds of roulette games in Vegas:
- American roulette
- European roulette
- Sands roulette
American roulette is the most common, so I’ll explain how the house gets its mathematical edge in that game before discussing anything else.
Also, a brief observation about the importance of understanding the odds in roulette:
You should understand the odds in any gambling game because that’s the first step in knowing what you’re up against.
You have a plethora of bets available in roulette, but they all have one thing in common — they would all be long-term break-even bets if there were 36 numbers on the roulette wheel.
But there are more numbers than that. On a standard American roulette wheel, you’ll find 38 numbers.
Let’s ignore red and black, odd or even, or any other complicated bets for now. Let’s just look at the single number bet.
A single number bet is a bet that a specific number will come up. It pays off at 35 to 1.
So, if you bet $100 on the number 7, and the ball lands on 7, you win $3500.
For purposes of calculating the house’s advantage, take a statistically perfect set of 38 spins — you land on each number once, and you make the same $100 bet on the same number every time.
You’ll lose $100 on 37 of those spins, for a total loss of $3700.
You’ll win $3500 on the winning spin, for a total win of $3500.
You’ll have lost $200 total, which is an average of $5.26 per bet. Divide the net loss by the number of bets to get the average loss in this case.
That’s 5.26% of your action, and that’s the house edge.
The other games have different house edge figures, but that’s what you’re facing, principle-wise.
How To Play Roulette
2- Try to Find a Roulette Wheel With Only One Zero
Remember how I said there are three different kinds of roulette wheels?
The differences between these wheels are the number of possible outcomes on each.
A European wheel only has 37 possible outcomes, while a Sands roulette wheel has 39 possible outcomes.
The difference comes from the number of zeroes on each wheel.
All the wheels have the numbers 1 through 36 on them, and half of those numbers are always black and half are always red.
The American wheel also has a 0 and 00, both of which are colored green.
A European wheel, though, only has a 0. There’s no 00.
This reduces the house edge from 5.26% to 2.70%.
And the game plays exactly the same.
The math is easy to do, too. In a perfect statistical set of 37 spins, you’ll only lose $100 instead of $200.
3- Avoid Sands Roulette at All Costs
The payouts for all these roulette games are the same. It’s just the odds of winning that change from game to game.
That single number bet that’s a 37 to 1 shot on an American wheel is a 36 to 1 shot on a European wheel.
But it’s a 38 to 1 shot on a Sands roulette wheel because there are three zeroes on the wheel.
The Sands roulette wheel is tricky, though, because the third zero isn’t labeled as a zero. Instead, it’s often a symbol or a letter of some kind.
Either way, it’s a bad deal.
The house edge goes up from 5.26% to 7.89% when you play on a triple zero roulette wheel.
In other words, you’ll lose 38 times, for $3800 in losses. You’ll still only have a single win for $3500, which means you’ve lost $300 over 38 spins, which is $7.89 per spin on average.
4- Find a Game With the En Prison or La Partage Rule
You’ll only find these optional rules available on European roulette games, and the rules only apply to the even money bets, which I haven’t even discussed yet.
The even money bets at the roulette table are red/ black, odd/even, or high/low.
If you win one of these bets, you win even money. Bet $100, and you’ll win $100.
The house edge is still the same, however. Here’s why:
Take 37 perfect spins on a European wheel. Eighteen of those numbers are red, and 18 of them are black. One of them, the zero, is green.
If you bet on red, you’ll lose $100 on 19 of those spins ($1900 total), and you’ll win $100 on 18 of those spins ($1800 total). Your net loss is still $100 over 37 spins or $2.70 per spin.
But with the en prison or la partage rule in effect, you have a 50% probability of getting your original bet back.
This reduces the house edge from 2.70% to 1.35%.
Now you’re playing a game with odds about the same as craps, which has a house edge of 1.41% on its most basic bet, also known as the pass line bet.
5- Skip the Betting Systems
There are many variations of roulette betting systems to choose from, but the most popular is the Martingale system. To use this system, you make an even money bet. If you lose, you double the size of that bet and bet again. Lose again, and you double the size of your bet again.
When you eventually win, you’ll have won back all the money you’ve lost, and you have a profit on top of that.
If you start with a $5 bet on black and lose, you’ll bet $10 on the next spin. Lose again, and you’ll bet $20 on the next spin.
Every one of those bets is a negative expectation bet, so you’re basically just adding a bunch of different sized negative numbers together hoping to get a positive number as your sum.
And that’s not how it works.
You will see winning progressions with this system, but when you do have a big losing progression, you’ll lose so much money that it will make up for your wins and then some. And that “then some” will eventually be the size of the house edge.
6- Or Use a Betting System if You Want To
The Martingale system isn’t the only betting system used in roulette, but it’s always a great example.
If you understand that the Martingale system doesn’t change the odds, it’s okay to use.
In fact, in the short run, the Martingale system can increase your probability of having a winning session.
The profits will be small, though.
The other 20% of the time, you’ll have a large enough set of losses to compensate.
That’s because the numbers grow faster than you think when you start doubling them.
If I gave you a penny and you doubled that penny every day for 30 days, you’d wind up a millionaire.
How To Win Money At Roulette Table Game
Of course, losing 30 spins in a row on roulette is unlikely in the extreme, which makes for some great roulette bankroll management. However, you only need to lose eight times in a row to need to place a bet that’s bigger than your bankroll, or the table limits can handle:
$5 – $10 – $20 – $40 – $80 – $160 – $320 – $640
Most roulette tables have a maximum bet of $500, which breaks the system right there.
7- Don’t Gamble With Money You Can’t Afford to Lose
No matter what you do in roulette, the odds are against you. Those casinos didn’t get so big by losing money to roulette players.
Sure, you can sometimes win in the short run, but the odds are always against you.
Keep that in mind when you decide how much money you can afford to bet on roulette.
Conclusion
Roulette’s a negative expectation, but then again, that’s true of all casino games. You can still win if you keep your wits about you.
These seven tips for how to win at roulette in Las Vegas are meant to help you do just that — keep your wits about you.