The great thing about roulette for non gamblers is that you can easily learn how to play with the best return using the best strategy in 5 minutes or less. In fact, by the end of this article you’re going to be playing roulette like a pro.
The key is finding the right roulette table. It’s easy to make a mistake in this area because all roulette tables look the same at first. But you’re going to learn how to quickly identify the best tables so you can void the bad tables.
1 – American Rules
3 types of roulette tables make up almost 100% of the available options. You can find an occasional funky roulette table, but you can safely skip any table that isn’t covered in this article. Any table not covered in this article has a higher house edge, which means that it takes more of your money.
The most common roulette table is a table that uses American roulette rules. This is also the table that has the highest house edge of the 3 main types of tables.
Note:
It’s extremely easy to see if a roulette table is using American rules. All you have to do is see if the table and wheel has a space that has a double zero, or 00. Any roulette wheel that has a 0 and 00 space is using American rules.
The nice thing about playing roulette is that every bet you can make except 1 has the same house edge. This is good because it means that the bet you choose to make doesn’t matter. The 1 bet that doesn’t have the same house edge is a basket bet, and it’s only available on an American rules table.
The basket bet has a worse house edge than the other bet options so you should never make it.
You odds of winning an even money bet on an American rules roulette table are 18 out of 38. Your odds of winning a bet on a single number are 1 out of 38. These numbers might not mean much to you yet, but in the next section you can compare them to the odds on a European rules table to see why an American rules table is bad.
2 – European Rules
Roulette tables that use European rules are almost exactly like the tables that use American rules. The main difference is that a European rules roulette table doesn’t have the extra space with a double zero. All of the other rules are the same.
The house edge on a roulette table using European rules is much lower than a table that uses American rules. And just like American rules roulette, it doesn’t matter which bet you make because they all have the same house edge.
The odds of winning an even money bet on a European rules table are 18 out of 37. The odds of winning a bet on a single number at a European rule stable are 18 out of 37.
When you compare these odds to the odds in the last section for American rules roulette you can see that they’re slightly better. This might not seem like a big deal, but consider what it means in real life action.
If you bet $40 on each spin and do this 38 times on an American rules table, you win ob average 18 times. You bet a total of $1,520 and you win $1,440. This is a percentage of 94.74% return.
If you bet $40 on a table using European rules 37 times you still win 18 times on average. Your total cost is $1,480, and you win back $1,440. This is a return of 97.3%.
The extra space on the wheel costs you quit a bit of money over time. This is the main reason why you should avoid playing on roulette tables that use American rules. But there’s a table that uses a rule that makes it even better than playing on a European rules table. I cover this type of table in the next section.
3 – French Rules
You learned that all of the best at the roulette table have the same house edge and return in the first 2 sections. While this is true for every roulette table, no matter what the rules are, a few roulette tables use a special rule that makes this even better.
Note:
A roulette table that uses French rules has a special rule concerning all of the even money bets you make. When you bet on an even money spot at a French rules table and lose, instead of losing your money it gets put in a special thing called prison.
It stays in prison until the next bet. On the next bet, if you win you get the money back that was in prison. This effectively cuts the house edge in half on these bets. If you happen to lose the second bet, that money gets put in prison and the money that was in prison is lost to the casino.
This brings me to the best strategy for every roulette player, whether you’re just starting or have years of experience at the roulette table.
The best strategy is to always play at a roulette table using French rules, always make the smallest bet the table allows, and always bet on an even money space.
4 – The Difference Between Online and Live Roulette
When it comes to the actual game play, online and live roulette are exactly the same. The only difference is that you play using software that shows the game when you play real money online roulette, and you play at a real table when you play live.
However, online play can be better for a couple reasons. The first reason is because you can make smaller bets at online casinos than live casinos let you make. This saves you money in the long run.
The second reason why online play can be better is because it’s much easier to find French rules tables in online casinos than in live casinos. In and based casinos the French rules tables, if they’re even available, are usually in a high limit area.
The final reason why you might consider playing online roulette is because you might be able to get a bonus. A roulette bonus doesn’t actually help you win because it doesn’t change the house edge, but it does give you more money to bet with.
You can also play online roulette slower than live roulette if you decide to. Of course, you can also play much faster. But it’s best to play roulette slower because you risk less money per hour playing slower.
5 – The Best Roulette Strategy
I briefly covered this in earlier sections, but I’m going to go over the best roulette strategy again here. This is to make sure you understand exactly what you need to do and for the people who just skip down to this section without reading the rest of the page.
The good news is that you don’t have to read the rest of the page to use the best strategy. In fact, you don’t even need to know anything else about roulette to use this strategy.
This strategy has 3 parts:
- Only play roulette at a table that uses French rules.
- Always make the smallest bet that the casino allows you to make.
- Only make a bet on an option that pays even money. These options all pay 1 to 1.
The even money roulette options are the following:
- Black Spaces
- Red Spaces
- Numbers 1 to 18
- Number 19 to 36
- Odd Numbers
- Even Numbers
That’s the complete strategy. You need to verify that the table uses the in prison rule, which you can do by simply asking the person running the table before you start playing. If you’re playing online roulette read the game rules to see if the table uses in prison. It’s also sometimes called en prison.
Conclusion
Roulette is a simple game, and now you know how to play it in a way that gives you the best chance to win. The key is finding a roulette table using French rules and making only even money bets.
These tables are easier to find when you gamble online, and you can make smaller bets online than land based casinos allow. Smaller bets mean that you bankroll will last a lot longer and that you lose far less on every spin than when you make bigger bets.
You already know the best possible roulette strategy so you can avoid the trap of systems that don’t work. Skip the American and European tables and you’re doing everything you can to win.
