Roulette is a casino game that many people have tried to find tricks and tips for over the centuries.
What secrets have they discovered that you can now use to boost your own chances of winning?
Understand How the Game Works
Roulette is a very simple game of chance where you just have to try and guess where the little ball is going to land. Some of the ways that players have tried to use to work out which number to bet on include analyzing whether the wheel has any sort of bias or if the croupier’s style has a bearing on the results.
While there are reports of isolated incidents where gamblers have used information like this to win, there seems to be no reason to believe that they are tricks that work and truly give you an advantage.
This brings us back to the idea of roulette being a game of chance where you have no control over what happens next. Yet, as you can see for yourself, if you play the game on popular online websites like Bovada.lv, people still look for lucky numbers and other ways of improving their odds. Here are things they try.
Consider the Use of Lucky Numbers
A roulette wheel has numbered pockets from 1 to 36, with European versions having a single zero pocket while American games also have a double zero. The chance of the ball ending in any particular pocket is exactly the same as it is for any other number.
So why do people stick to lucky numbers or believe that certain numbers have a better chance of winning? One possible reason for this is something known as the gambler’s fallacy. This is where we believe that the previous results affect what will happen in the future. This isn’t true, as every spin is completely random and unrelated to others.
You might also have heard that certain numbers are luckier than others in life and on the roulette wheel, like 7 and 17. The problem here is that more people bet on these numbers than on any others, meaning that we should expect to see more wins, even though these numbers don’t come up more often than any others.
Choose the Version and Bets That Give the Best Return
So far, we’ve seen that none of the most common tips really work. There’s nothing to stop you from choosing a lucky number or trying to work out some sort of pattern, but all of the evidence points to none of these things increasing your chances of picking the right number.
That doesn’t mean that there’s nothing you can do to help your chances, though. One of the simplest tips that really works is choosing the best version of roulette. While they all look the same, there are three main variants you need to know about.
American roulette gives you the lowest chance of winning, due to the presence of that double zero on the wheel increasing the house edge. It also includes the five number bet, which has the worst house edge in roulette. Any bet on European roulette has a 2.70% house edge, compared to the 5.26% on American games, with that five number bet having a 7.89% house edge.
There is a third option, as some games use additional French rules, which add extra bets and also include a helping hand. La partage and en prison are useful rules that work on even money bets when the ball lands in zero. With la partage, you get half your stakes returned, while en prison sees your stake stay on the board for a second chance. Either of these rules lowers the house edge on even-money bets to 1.35%.
Manage Your Bankroll
One final tip worth taking into account is in managing your bankroll in the same way you would with sports betting or any other type of gambling. No matter what version of the game you play, it’s worth bearing in mind how to handle your bankroll. This means taking a moment to consider what you want to achieve.
Let’s imagine for a moment that you want to bet on a single number coming up. This pays out at 35 to 1 on any version of the game, but it might take a while for it to appear. So do you place big stakes in the hope of grabbing a large win on one of the first spins, or keep the wager low so that you can play for longer if it doesn’t come up quickly?
For most new players, it makes sense to keep their wagers low at first, to let them play for longer and without risking too much cash. Even money bets give the best chance of winning modest amounts regularly to keep you ticking over as you play.
Above all, you should approach roulette as a game of chance to be enjoyed. There might not be any tricks to help you to win more often, but it’s still a great game that can bring you a lot of enjoyment now that you understand the basics.
