How to Win at Roulette

Roulette is one of the most exciting casino games around, largely because it relies almost entirely on chance. As with any game of chance in the casino you are at the mercy of the mathematics, which are obviously weighted in the casinos favour. Once the wheel begins spinning the player’s fate is in the hands of the
gambling Gods.

With no control over the outcome of the spinning wheel the smart player pays attention to the factors that they can control:

Where to play
Which bets to place
How much to bet
When to walk away

Where to Play

Most guides will stress the importance of choosing the right casino and recommending their ‘favourite casino’. In most cases this will be the casino that offers the highest commission to them for recommending new clients, so this advice should be taken with a pinch of salt.

The most important aspect to consider when deciding where to play is the tables available. Find a Casino that offers European Roulette, not American Roulette.

The European roulette wheel only has one green zero compared to the two (0 and 00) on an American roulette. This effectively halves the house edge on a European wheel, increasing your chances of winning accordingly.

Other variations between Casinos that might influence your decision include table minimums and limits, your preference for downloadable rather than games that run in your browser, and finally the special offers or promotions that the Casinos offer to entice new players.

Remember – no matter how attractive the promotion seems, you will win more money playing at a European Roulette table.

Which bets to place

No matter how attractive the returns appear to be on some of the more glamorous bets on the roulette table (35-1 for a straight up bet!) you stand more chance of winning if you focus on those bets where the return most closely matches the risk involved. It is advisable therefore to concentrate on the outside, or even money bets – odds/evens, red/black, high/low.

How much to bet

It is most important when playing roulette to win to be disciplined with your bankroll. Your bankroll is the total amount of money you have available to gamble with. The online casinos encourage you to deposit more money than you’d happily risk in one session by offering you big percentage-based bonuses on your initial deposit. Before you start selling gold jewellery or taking photographs to sell your grandmother on ebay, so you can get the biggest possible bonus – think about why they make such generous offers. The reason they do this is two-fold.

1) It gives you an air of confidence – after all, you already feel like you’re winning as you have more money than you started with – so if you lose a little, it’s not actually costing you anything right?

2) The more money you have in your account, the more you’ll spend – It’s human nature to chase losses when they occur, but a bad idea.

In order to maximise your winnings it’s very important that you decide in advance how much you’re willing to play with in a session. The amount you stake on any single bet should be somewhere in the region of 5% of your session total, this will enable you to ride the storm of any unfortunate losing streak at the beginning of your session.

When to walk away

The key to profiting from even-money betting is to recognise that you will encounter winning and losing streaks. This is statistically inevitable, but if you recognise this in advance and you can find the self-discipline to walk away when you are ahead you stand a better chance of winning more than you spend.

There are many so-called roulette systems in existence that will try to convince you that certain fixed betting patterns will lead you to riches. Personally I don’t subscribe to any of these – Most offer over-complicated systems or tedious regimens where you wait for a string of 5-10-15 reds in a row and then use a martingale progression to ensure you don’t lose your money. Nobody likes losing, but waiting around for 10 reds in a row and then still losing (which is statistically just as likely) has got to hurt.

Personally, I like to attempt to capitalise on my winning streaks by slightly increasing my bets when i’m on a roll, and sticking to minimum bets when I’m losing. Doubling up to reduce your losses is a dangerous game as you can end up risking a lot money for the chance of simply recouping your losses. This can get very costly very quickly.

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