Month: October 2018

Have you always wondered what the origins of the game of roulette are and what exactly made the game so popular around the world? The truth is that roulette is one of the most fabled gambling games and one that has become a part of countless legends and gambling stories for many different reasons.  

Roulette is a game of chance like most other casino games, with no real skill element involved. Unlike games like poker where decision making is actually important, in roulette it all boils down to pure luck. The house always has the edge and there is no way to beat the game in the long run, but that does not mean that you can’t have a ton of fun with it.

In fact, if you don’t mind playing a gambling game in which the house has an edge, roulette could easily be your best choice for a great number of reasons. We list top nine fun facts about roulette that you probably didn’t know and that might just make you want to try the game and test your luck.

1. Roulette is the Devil’s Wheel

The reasons behind roulette being called the Devil’s Wheel are twofold. For one, the game can be quite devilish and unforgiving at times and has left many hardcore gamblers broke without a penny in their pockets. However, the real origin of the name comes from the fact that added up, the numbers on the roulette wheel amount 666, the devil’s number.

2. There are Multiple forms of Roulette

While the game of roulette is found in almost every casino around the world, it is not always the exact same game you will be playing as there are multiple rules of roulette that might apply.

The various forms of roulette offered in live and online casinos around the world change the variance and the house edge of the game, but also provide versatility for the players. If you are sick of always playing the same old game of roulette, trying some French roulette or multiball roulette online could be all the change you need.

3. American Roulette is European in Origin

As you might know, American, European, and French roulette feature a different table layout. European gamblers got used to single-zero tables, when in Vegas you can find roulette games with a double zero on their wheels.

The double zero layouts originated from Jacques Lablee’s 1796 ‘La Roulette ou le Jour’, one of the first books about roulette in history. In those days, both layouts were present in European casinos.

However, German designers decided to remove double-zero tables from their new gambling houses and roll it out as a novelty to attract more customers. It worked, so now all European casinos feature only one single-zero layout.

4. It’s Nearly Impossible to Get Cheated at Roulette

While many gamblers like to look for someone to blame for their bad luck, the fact is that roulette is easily one of the fairest games you will find in any casino. Unlike card games which can actually be rigged by well-trained dealers, it is almost impossible for a dealer to rig a spin of roulette.

While some wheels could be adjusted on purpose or by chance to give certain sectors a better chance of landing, this could actually be exploited by savvy players, which is why casinos make sure their roulette wheels are as straight as possible. As far as dealer skills go, it is nearly impossible for a dealer to hit a sector using skill alone.

5. American Roulette is a Sucker’s Game

As we mentioned above, American and European Roulette are quite similar, with only one difference: the American Roulette wheel has one slot more, while all payouts remain the same. This means your chances of getting any bet right are slightly lower, while all payouts remain the same, making European Roulette a far superior game.

In fact, the difference in house edge between the two games is quite large, with the extra number taking the house edge all the way up to 5.2% from the original 2.7%. The more spins you play, the worse it gets and our advice is to always look for European or better yet French Roulette if you have the chance.

6. Most patterns players think exist are fallacy

When playing, players often catch themselves thinking that games have some winning patterns and place their bets based on these patterns. The real mathematical and logical truth is that there are no patterns in the game of roulette (with the exception of those discovered by advantage play) and any number can land at any time regardless of the last spin or any other statistic you can think of. While there is no harm in placing a bet on numbers that are “hot” or “cold” or your “favorite numbers”, there is absolutely no upside either. Every player has the same chance at every moment as every other, so it’s all really down to luck.

7. Martingale Doesn’t Work

One of the most popular roulette “systems” out there, the Martingale, is in fact completely bogus. While there is a realistic chance of making some money using this system before you go broke, the same goes for any other type of betting pattern that you may apply. In fact, there is really no difference between playing the Martingale or just letting it all ride on a single number. In the long run, the two will amount to the exact same loss.

8. Cheating in Roulette is Possible

To an uninformed person, it may seem like roulette is a game in which the player can hardly cheat. However, over the years there were many examples of people beating the casinos by cheating, one of the most famous being Francis Faruggia, who used a late bet scam to beat casinos out of millions. Placing your bet once the ball is almost landing without the dealer noticing can give you a significant edge.

9. People Have Won and Lost Millions at Roulette

There were more than a few examples of people losing millions of dollars or pounds playing roulette. Back in 2004, Brit Ashley Revell bet his life savings of over $135.000 on a single spin and walked away with double the money. The likes of Philip Green have won multiple millions in single nights, while numerous high stakes gamblers were reported as winning and losing millions in more private settings.

Spin Away at the Devil’s Wheel

As you can probably tell from these interesting pieces of trivia, roulette is a fascinating game with rich history and many legends revolving it. If you have never played the game, you should definitely give it a go! Don’t forget to keep the stakes reasonable as you wouldn’t want to play too high on the Devil’s Wheel unless you know exactly what you are doing.

There are many other stories we could tell you about roulette, but the best way to get more roulette stories is to actually spin the wheel yourself. If nothing else, you will at least be able to build your own legend and think of new interesting facts about one of the most popular casino game in the world.

You might expect that getting accurate advice and tips to win at roulette would be easy. Unfortunately, Google does not determine the accuracy of a website’s content. Instead, rankings are based on the popularity of a website. This means the Internet is flooded with interesting but inaccurate content.

Google is aware of the problem, so it reportedly has begun work on an algorithm that favors websites with accurate content, and penalizes websites with inaccurate content.

Simply put, the majority of websites you find about winning roulette are loaded with nonsense. They are usually written by Internet marketers with no real experience in beating roulette.

Where can you find accurate advice?

A good start is our roulette tips page, which was designed as a genuinely helpful resource, rather than a page we intended to rank well in Google. Specifically it explains the typical mistakes system players make. It explains invaluable tips concerning what does and doesn’t work.

You could try the various roulette forums, although don’t believe everything you read. Most members have very little experience in professional systems. In fact our forums have a clear red warning on the front page urging readers to carefully test systems before betting real money.

The casinos profit from inaccurate information.

The casino isn’t particularly interested in helping you win. After all, they only profit if you lose. It doesn’t mean they hate all winners, because casinos need winners to give the losers hope. Similarly, roulette wheel and equipment designers build in subtle manipulative features. These features are designed to mislead players into developing losing systems.

A good example is the display of hot numbers. Hot numbers are simply numbers that have won significantly more than others. On any roulette wheel, inevitably some numbers are going to win more than others. The greatest mistake a roulette player can make in this case is thinking the trend will continue. In fact it was never a trend to begin with.

Testing this is rather easy. First I suggest beginning with a reputable source of spins, whether they be from a random number generator or a real roulette wheel. You will need a significant number of spins to test with. If you use a random number generator, you can quite easily obtain millions of spins. Again hot numbers will occur with any roulette wheel, and any random number generator.

Ideally use automated software to determine how frequently a number wins in one hundred spins. Consider the five numbers which have spun most. Now check the next one hundred spins. You’ll probably find you have a completely new set of hot numbers. Of course there is a chance that some of the previous hot numbers will be included in your new set of hot numbers. That’s just basic probability.

So how is this relevant? Almost all roulette machines, especially automated machines, include a touchpad screen. These screens include various statistics that appear professional and useful to the inexperienced player. An inexperienced player may try betting on a hot number, expecting the number to remain hot.

A similarly inexperienced player a few seats over may have a different view. They may see the numbers that have hit least, and expect that these cold numbers are due to become hot. Who’s correct? Neither players. It is important to understand that in any gambling game, nothing is ever due. Nothing happens without cause. The winning numbers occur because of the various relevant variables, including but not limited to wheel and ball speed.

Thinking a number is hot, and that its streak will continue is a serious mistake. And so is thinking any numbers is due to become hot.

Choosing reputable casinos.

Every online casino as an affiliate program. And every affiliate has a website, promoting their chosen casino is the best. This makes entire websites a gigantic ad. Nevertheless, you can still obtain valuable information about online casinos from them. Click here to see a site that lists the various pros and cons of available online casinos.

But as with any site, ignore the hype and focus on the features you are looking for. Suitable advice depends on your requirements. For example, if you are a professional player, you would need live dealer roulette. This is because exploiting real roulette wheels is far more plausible than exploiting flaws in random number generators.

Exploiting genuine flaws in a casinos random number generator is no small task. You would require potentially hundreds of thousands for proper analysis. This would cost a lot of money because you would lose during the data acquisition phase. If you are unable to determine any flaws in a random number generator, then you have no way of obtaining an edge over the casino.

It’s very different with real wheels because you need far fewer spins, and there are a variety of ways to exploit roulette wheel physics.

Testing your strategy properly.

Most roulette system players fail to test their strategy properly. The most common mistake is testing far too few spins. For example, often a player may test system over just one hundred spins. And if the player uses betting progression, the chances are they will profit. But continued play will likely result in a loss.

If you tested a random system over one hundred spins, sometimes you will win, and sometimes you will lose. Out of say fifty groups of a hundred spins, you may find you win thirty, and lose twenty. But tally up the total winnings and losings, and chances are you will find overall you have lost.

If you are honest with yourself, you would conclude that your system does not work. If you just look at the amount of winning sessions versus the amount of losing sessions, you may incorrectly conclude that your system works.

Regardless of any roulette tips or advice you will find on the Internet, proper testing will reveal whether or not the advice is accurate. If you fail the test properly, you will only realize the accuracy of the advice when it’s too late.