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Spinning the wheel – winning at roulette

Roulette is an emblematic casino game

that most players are familiar with and it is offered at every gambling establishment both online and land-based. It has a wide variety of betting options, and ever since its invention, gamblers have tried to find a method that would allow them to win at it. You don't need any kind of special skills to play roulette, but it is advisable to familiarize yourself with the rules and varieties of the game before heading to the casino.

The objective of the game is to try to guess which number the ball will land on. The roulette wheel is divided into 37 or 38 coloured and numbered slots, depending on the variant. There are many options you can bet on ranging from a single number to different kinds of combinations. These options can be divided into inside and outside bets. Outside bets include betting on either red or black, odd or even numbers, or groups of twelve numbers. These bets usually pay even money. Inside bets can be placed on any one number to groups of up to six numbers. They have a higher payout than outside bets, but they also involve a larger risk for the players. In order to be able to choose a type of bet, you need to understand the odds involved in the game of roulette.

The roulette wheel contains numbers from 1 to 36, so a number should come up on average once out of 36 times. In conclusion, the true odds of hitting a number are 35 to 1 and this is the payout the casinos offer you for succeeding in guessing a single number. The payouts for he other types of bets are also set according to the true odds, so you will get 17:1 if you hit one of a two number spread, and 8:1 for one out of a four number spread. If you place a bet on a column and the ball lands on one of the numbers in it, you will be payed 2 to 1, whereas betting on colours or odd/even numbers will bring you an even money payout.

Although this may seem reasonable, there is a catch: the roulette wheel also contains a slot marked with 0, and in the American version you have an additional 00. This is the reason why the casino has an advantage over the players. The existence of these spaces on the wheel means that you actually have one chance in 37 of hitting a specific number, not one in 35. This is how casinos make money out of roulette, and naturally it makes a big difference whether you have one zero on the wheel or two. The house edge in the case of American roulette is 5.26%, while in the European version it is only 2.70%. A rule of thumb in the case of both land-based and online roulette is to look for casinos that offer the European or single-zero version of the game, since this is a far more advantageous choice for the player than the American.

Regarding the betting options, the safest way is to put your wager on the even money options. If you bet on these, you have a 47.37% chance of winning. Choosing a single number you will loose most of the times, albeit the payouts are higher when you do win. By far the worst betting option is the 0-00-1-2-3 combination in American roulette, since the house edge in this case raises up to 7.89%. If you choose the even money bets, you will win almost half of the time on the long run, and your bankroll will probably last longer, allowing you to enjoy the game and the casino atmosphere.

Ever since its invention, gamblers have come up with a variety of imaginative systems to win at roulette. A number of these have been around for a very long time and in spite of their proven ineffectiveness, continue to be used and re-invented by people to this day. The best example is the Martingale, a progression betting system that sparks unending debates among believers and casino experts. The biggest fault of these systems is the fact that they involve risking a large amount of money for a small win and they cannot deal effectively with the situation where a series of losses occur. No system has ever stood the test of extensive computer simulations and succeeded in overcoming the house edge. Although the internet is full of people claiming to have discovered the secret of becoming a millionaire by playing roulette, it would be a complete waste of money to buy one of these. Unfortunately, many naive players fall prey to such scam artists, only to discover that the full proof winning method they bought was based on a faulty logic and it caused them to loose large amounts of money when applied in the game. Many times, flat betting makes more sense then using a betting system because it doesn't involve such big losses.

In the past, when roulette wheels weren't very sophisticated, the observant players could win by finding the ones that where biased. Discovering a mechanical fault took a lot of time, spent in observing the game and clocking the wheel, but it has produced the desired result in some cases. Nowadays, casinos spend a lot of money to ensure that their equipment is up to standards, and it is unlikely that any such wheels are still in function.

If you play roulette online, the outcome of the spins is determined by a random number generator, so it is futile to look for the faults in the system. Online play does have its advantages without involving anything illegal though, in the form of casino bonuses. As a roulette player, you should always use these to get a better chance at winning. Using the promotions casinos have to offer and sticking to the safest bets may just allow you to walk away as a winner.

Roulette is a game of pure luck, and it should be regarded as a form of entertainment, not a source of income. No system will make you a guaranteed winner, but some playing sessions can have a favorable outcome for you. As long as you are careful about your bankroll and you don't spend money you can't afford to lose, playing roulette will be a fun and enjoyable experience.