Roulette

Last update: Jan. 12, 2008

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Introduction

Roulette is one of the easiest games to play and understand in the casino. As usual the easier a game is to understand the greater the house edge, and roulette is no exception. If you are looking for a easy to understand and slow paced table game, and are willing to sacrifice on the house edge, then you may like roulette. If you want something more stimulating or with a decent return I would suggest looking at other games.

One difference between roulette and all other table games is that roulette chips have no value denomination printed on them. This actually is the true definition of a chip, one which indicates its value is technically called a check. The roulette table comes with six to eight sets of different colored chips, each set consisting of 300 chips. When a player buys-in they get their own color and the value would be the buy-in divided by the number of chips received. The dealer will place a token on top of the dealer's stack of that color of chips to indicate the value.

Las Vegas Rules Survey

I am proud to present my Las Vegas roulette rules survey. This is an attempt to list the roulette rules at every casino in the Las Vegas area.

United States Rules

A U.S. roulette wheel consists of 38 numbered slots: numbers 1 to 36, a zero, and a double zero. The betting layout consists of every individual number as well as a host of "outside" or combinations of numbers. After the players make their bets the dealer spins the wheel and a ball and after several seconds the ball will land in one of the numbered slots.

The following table displays the available bets, the win (on a "for one" basis), and the probability of winning under U.S. rules. All casinos in the U.S. follow these rules except for in Atlantic City. The house edge on all bets is 1/19, or 5.26%, except for one bet. The exception is the 0-00-1-2-3 combination, which carries a house edge of 7.89%.

Single Zero Rules

Most high-end casinos in the United States have single-zero wheels. This includes Las Vegas, Atlantic City, the Grand in Tunica, and Foxwoods in Connecticut. The limits on the single zero wheels are usually higher than the double zero wheels. A noteworthy exception is the Nevada Palace in Las Vegas, which has a single zero wheel with a 25-cent minimum. The house edge on an American single-zero wheel is 1/37, or 2.70%.

Atlantic City Rules

In Atlantic City any all even money bets (red, black, odd, even, 1-18, 19-36) follow a variation of the European imprisonment rule (see below). In the event the ball lands in 0 or 00 the player will lose only half of any even money bet. This lowers the house edge to 2.63% on these bets. This rule does not apply on single zero wheels.

European Rules

European roulette is played on a single wheel and also features a favorable "en prison" rule. Under this rule if the player makes any even money bet (red, black, odd, even, 1-18, 19-36) and the ball lands in zero the player either gets half the bet back or it becomes inprisoned. If an imprisoned bet wins on the next spin it is released and the player gets it back, without winnings. The similar "La Partage" rule offers half back only, without the option to imprison. What is subject to debate, or rule variation, is what happens to an imprisoned bet if the ball lands in zero on the next spin. I have heard of four different rule variations and each are explained below.

Hamburg: At a casino I visited in Hamburg follows the "La Partage" rule, in which half of even money bets are returned if the ball lands in zero. This house edge is 1.3514%.

Berlin: At a casino I visited in Berlin even money bets became imprisoned if the ball landed in zero. The bet was returned if it won on the next spin. If a zero occured on the second spin the bet lost. The rule card in Berlin said the player may request the croupier to move the imprisoned bet from one even money bet to another. This house edge is 1.3879%.

France: According to my interpretation of the of roulette rule-book (PDF, 1161K) at Casinos Barrieres (a casino chain found mostly along the coasts of France) the bet is put on an "even chances line." For example if the player bets on red and the ball lands in zero the bet is put on the line below the red diamond. If the next spin is red the bet is freed, if black it is lost. If the next spin or spins are green the bet stays on the line until a red or black spin resolves it. The player may also choose to lose half. Both options have a house edge of 1.3514%.

Holland: According to a dealer from Holland who wrote me if two zeros occurs in a row the bet becomes double imprisoned. In this case two winning bets in a row must occur to release it. If a anything else occurs, including more zeros, the bet is lost. This house edge is 1.3706%. The dealer said that the player also has the option to get half back immediately, which is the better option.

Spain: I have an unconfirmed report that in Spain a bet can become imprisoned an unlimited number of times. If the ball lands in 0 n times in a row, then it must win n times in a row. I assume that another zero, trying to work off the layers of imprisonment, would cause the bet to lose. The house edge under these rules is 1.3704%.

Las Vegas: Most high limit rooms at the nicer Strip casinos have a European roulette wheel. These invariably follow the half-back Hamburg rule, with a house edge of 1.3514%.

Bally Gaming Rules

Bally Gaming has an electronic representation of roulette, on a long vertical monitor. Every time I have seen it, a single-zero wheel was pictured. Sometimes the pay-offs are standard. However, be warned that sometimes a single-number win pays 31 to 1 (shown on the game as 32 for 1), and a two-number win pays 15 to 1 (shown as 16 for 1). This increases the house edge on both bets to 15.79%.

Number Placement

To the casual observer it would appear that the numbers on the wheel are not organized and seem to be distributed randomly. The only obvious patterns are that red and black numbers alternate and that usually two odd numbers alternate with two even numbers. However the distribution of numbers was carefully arranged so that the sum of the numbers for any given section of the wheel would be roughly equal to any other section of equal size. Most numbers are part of a pair, with one number between them. These pairs add to either 37 or 39.

Wheel Tracking

Some people and books claim that roulette wheels are biased, with a heavy side and a light side. Gravity causes the numbers in the heavy side to hit more often. This, I believe, used to be true when the quality of the equipment was poor. However, modern roulette wheels are much better and very rigorously tested. Only in a casino using a very dated wheel, may you be able to find a biased one by testing many thousands of spins. Based on stories I have heard, your odds of finding such wheels are probably best in Europe.

Betting Systems

Ugh. If you think you can beat roulette with a betting system please read my section debunking betting systems. If you don't believe what I say there, here is what the Encyclopedia Britanica says under the subject of roulette:

The oldest and most common betting system is the Martingale or "doubling-up" system, in which bets are doubled progressively. This probably dates back to the invention of the Roulette wheel, but every day of the week some gambler somewhere reinvents it, or some variation of it, and believes he has something new. Over the years hundreds of "sure-fire" winning systems have been dreamed up, but regardless of what system is used, in the long run it cannot overcome the house's advantage of the 0, or 0 and 00. This house advantage is the only system that consistently wins in the long run.

"No one can possibly win at rolette unless he steals money from the table while the croupier isn't looking." — Albert Einstein

California Roulette

In California cards must be used in all table games to at least partially determine the outcome. Here is how some California casinos use cards in roulette.

• Pala: The roulette wheel has 38 slots, identified by color only. The distribution of colors is 12 red, 12 white, 12 blue, and 2 green. There is also a 38-card deck, with one card each for all 38 possible outcomes in double-zero roulette. Four cards are dealt from the deck and placed on colored regions of the table, one for each color on the wheel. The color the ball lands in determines which card is flipped over, which determines the spin for betting purposes. There is an additional bet called "Super Green", which pays 275 to 1 if the ball lands in green and the 0 or 00 card is drawn. The probability of winning is (2/38)*(2/38) = 0.28% and the house advantage is 23.55%.
• Barona: A single-zero roulette wheel is used. There is also a 37-card deck, numbered 0 to 37. Three cards are dealt from the deck and placed in regions on the table identified as "1-12", "13-24", and "25-36". The range the ball lands in (0-12, 13-24, or 25-36) determines which card is flipped over, which is used to resolve all bets.
• Harrah's Rincon: A bingo hopper is used, containing 76 balls, two each of every ball numbered 1 to 36 plus 0 and 00. A ball is drawn which corresponds to the spin for betting purposes.

Precision Spinning

I get asked a lot about whether I believe dealers can influence the spin to a certain area of the wheel. I flatly disbelieve that any dealer can do this, and still follow the usual casino rules for the force of the spin. Many dealers evidently do believe that they can indeed influence the spin. However, if they could, it would be easy to cause a confederate to win, and other players to lose, all while looking completely legitimate. Yet, somehow, you never hear about this actually happening. Nobody is getting caught or selling out, despite the alleged ease of which this is to do, what are the odds of that?

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Random Roulette Spins

Before you waste your money testing a betting system in the casinos please use the following computer generated spins. Remember, it takes about 10,000 or so spins before the ups and downs start to average out and you see that no betting system can survive the long run.

10,000 spins in single zero roulette (simulation #1).
10,000 spins in single zero roulette (simulation #2).
10,000 spins in single zero roulette (simulation #3).
10,000 spins in double zero roulette.