Busting Some Myths: Five Facts About Roulette

Of all the casino games that there are available to play on the Internet or in real-world casinos today, roulette may well be one of the most misunderstood and certainly one of the most that suffers from all kinds of rumours and counter-rumours about aspects of the game.

There are many people who will claim that roulette is a mugs game, that the casino can use some technological gizmo to cheat players out of their cash if they feel that they are losing too much money and that Internet based games regularly cheat to ensure that the casino enjoys a much greater house edge than is actually stated.

In sharp contrast to this are the number of different people who claim to have a ‘secret formula’ for guaranteed success at the roulette table. These pathways to instant success and the multi-millionaire lifestyle, are always sold at a rather low price, considering that they are promising you untold riches, often with improbable case studies as to the legitimacy of their grandiose claims of instant wealth. Under the rules of texas holdem online, if two players have equal value best hands, then the accumulated pot will be shared equally between those two players.

Given this unreliable information, it is little wonder that many people remain unsure if roulette is a game worth playing at the casino, do they stand a chance of winning at roulette, or is it all just a con? Well in this article, we’ll bust some myths about the casino and tell you five facts about the game which will hopefully give you the confidence and determination to enjoy this fantastic casino game for what it is, and not what it is rumoured to be!

1. Roulette is one of the most winnable player-friendly games in the casino!

Forget the notion that roulette is a game with a huge house edge, in actual fact the mathematics behind the statistics show that roulette is one of the fairest games when it comes to a the house having an advantage. If you play on a European wheel with a single zero, the house edge is just 2.7% and it is 5.26% if you play on the American double zero wheel. This compares very favourably with bets such as betting on any craps (11.11% house edge), some slot machines (up to 15% house edge), Keno (25 to 29% house edge) and Sic Bo (up to 33.33% house edge).

Ally this small house edge to strong betting strategy that focuses on the bets that give you more chance of success more often (often called the ‘outside bets’), and you have a game where you can win far more frequently than in many other casino games.

2. Understanding the math and odds gives you a greater chance of success!

One of the key misunderstandings about roulette does not stem from the game itself, but the faulty mathematics of those who try to play it. Have you heard the apocryphal story about a player who was adamant that if he bet $2 on the same number for 37 spins, he would win at least once? He believed that because each spin has a one in 37 (or 38 on a double zero wheel), chance of landing on your number that this would happen. Of course, this is not the case, in a series of 37 spins, the players number may come up once, it may come up five times, it may never come up.

Understanding the mathematics is useful not just in understanding the game but also the bets We recommend. Keep your bets to the outside of the layout and play the lower odds bets that have more chance of success and you’ll keep the odds in your favour for longer.

3. Lucky numbers are entirely subjective – the wheel doesn’t know your lucky number!

Occasionally ‘lucky’ numbers can turn up the goods for one player but it is important to realise here that it is an entirely subjective view whether a number is lucky or not for the individual. The wheel and the ball do not know that your chosen number is ‘lucky’ and thus will try and land in it for you. You may believe that luck is on your side if you select a certain number and we hope you are right, but statistics have shown that there is no ‘lucky’ number in roulette above any other and that hoping your luck will come in by backing the same number incessantly is not the most profitable strategy.

4. The best roulette players make small profits often, rather than big profits less frequently.

Unless you are vastly wealthy and can bet large sums on the even money outside bets, then roulette is not a game where the average punter can turn a small sum, into a huge sum of money, in a short space of time. Playing the outside bets gives you more chance of success, but the winnings are much smaller than backing the inside bets which are longer odds. Over time, you’ll find the most profitable players are those who stick to the better odds bets and have patience and a willingness to slowly build their pot, rather than try to blow the majority of it on one single bet with little chance of success.

5. All reputable companies ensure their roulette games are fair and each is individually tested

One of the biggest myths is that many roulette games are unfair and somehow programmed to ensure that the player loses. The belief is that the random number generator, that powers the game, is actually anything but and that it is programmed to recognise when the casino stands to lose money, and instead make sure it takes cash by making players lose.

This is an utter falsehood, all top roulette software is coded by independent companies who must adhere to industry standard practices to ensure that the games are fair. Yes a house edge may be built in to the software, but no more than playing a physical game in the real world. With rigorous testing, almost all online casino games are not just as fair as their real world counterparts, in many cases they are often fairer as they are not affected by wear and tear or the movements of the person who sets the ball and wheel in motion.