How to Avoid Roulette Mistakes and Enjoy a More Productive Online Casino Roulette Game

Roulette is one of the most popular casino games around the world.  The simplicity of the play, combined with betting options that can become relatively complicated, make for an exciting and fun-filled online casino gaming event. 

Since the betting table offers opportunities for high percentages of success to those who understand it, if you want to maximize your roulette gaming event, you need to know which bets to avoid and on which bets you should focus..   

Roulette

Roulette is basically a simple game. You make your decision about which bet to make, place your chips on the right spot, spin the wheel and drop the ball into the spinning wheel. When the ball lands, you win or lose, based on your prediction of into which pocket the ball would land. 

When all is said and done, all of the wagers have the same house edge.  Even money bets are the most popular -- black/red and odds/evens. These bets pay 1 to 1 so, on average, you win half the time and lose half the time. 

The highest payout bets are the single number bets. Single number bets pay 35 to 1. However, those are the riskiest types of bets because you don’t win them very often. In between the even money bets and the single number bets are a wide range of additional bet types, each of which has its own odds that are somewhere between the safest even money bets and the riskiest single number bets. 

Many roulette players make the same mistakes over and over.  They aren’t aware that these are betting decisions that are just plain wrong.  If you’re going to play roulette for real money, you should be aware of these common mistakes and correct them before your next game. 

Single Zero Vs. Double Zero Wheels

There are at least four different types of roulette games. Many roulette players aren’t aware that one roulette wheel isn’t necessarily like the second and they don’t know that the house edge varies widely from one to the other. But make no mistake -- the type of roulette wheel on which you play has a big impact on your chances of winning. 

The four types of roulette wheels include:

• European roulette

• American roulette

• French roulette

• Triple zero roulette

The most common roulette games are American or European roulette. An American roulette wheel has a zero pocket and a double zero pocket while the European roulette wheel has only a single zero pocket. (a French roulette wheel also has one zero pocket but there are a few extra rules that cause it to differ from a European roulette game. We aren’t going to delve into the triple zero roulette wheel -- it’s rare and since it offers the worst odds of all the games so it’s not worthwhile to discuss it here). 

The addition of the extra double zero pocket on an American wheel makes the house edge higher. It makes sense -- when you make an even money bet on an American wheel with an extra pocket space, you win on 18 out of 38 spins. On a European wheel with only one single zero pocket  you win on 18 out of 37 spins. Where are you going to win more?  

The house edge on a European wheel is 2.7%.  The house edge on an American wheel is 5.26%. If you want to give the House more of an opportunity to keep your money, play an American wheel.  If you want to enjoy more wins, choose a European roulette wheel.. 

If you can find a casino that offers French roulette, play that. In French roulette, the house edge on even money bets goes down to between 1.3% and 1.4%. French roulette tables are rare, but a few of them exist.

French roulette uses a European roulette wheel. The main rule difference between French and European roulette is that, when you make an even money bet on a French wheel and the ball lands in the zero pocket, you get back half your bet. If the en prison rule is offered, instead of getting half your bet returned, the bet is held until the next spin and if you win on the next spin, your wager is returned. 

Systems

There are dozens of books, websites, video tutorials and other “aides” to help you learn a system to beat the roulette wheel.  The problem with those systems is that they sound good, but they don’t really work. 

Save your time and money. There is no roulette system that beats the game in the long run. Studies show that there’s no system that holds up to long term play. For example, there’s one that promotes the idea that you bet only on even money bets and double your wagers after every loss so that when you do win, you win back all the money that you lost.  Again, in the short term it may succeed but not over a long period of time. 

It might be fun to use a system but you should drop it before the huge loss comes. The only people making money with roulette systems are the ones selling books and tutorials about how to play the system. You can assume that, if someone really  had a system that actually beat the game, they would be playing at the table to collect their wins, not writing about it.

Basically, roulette is designed to win a certain percentage of the time and lose a certain percentage of the time.  

Long Term Vs. Short Term

Casino experts say that the longer you play, the more you lose.  That’s a statistical fact....unless you win.

That means that you should keep your gaming sessions short.  If you win, go home. Don’t use your winnings to rebet - not right away, that is. Maybe later, during a fresh gaming session.  In an hour, this evening, or tomorrow...