What Can Roulette Wheel Construction Tell You About How to Win at Roulette?

Predicting the results of a spin of the roulette wheel is more than a toss of the coin. If you have a good understanding of the wheel’s design and possible manufacturing defects you can turn that knowledge to your advantage when you play at the online casino.  And even better yet - at Springbok Casino you can use your no deposit casino bonus to hone your skills before putting down your own hard-earned cash.

Understanding how a roulette wheel is built and maintained allows you to leverage the game and come out a winner more often. When you know about the construction of the roulette wheel you can better plan and predict where the ball will fall in the wheel.

The wheel has 5 main parts, the ball track, the rotor, the pockets, the base, and the shaft. These all affect the dominant diamonds which determine the trajectory of the ball.

Dominant Diamonds

The diamonds (also called disruptors, pins, deflectors, stops or slats) are the metal deflectors that are embedded in the wheel. They are scattered throughout the wheel and disrupt the trajectory of the ball.

“Dominant diamond” involves diamonds that are hit by the ball more often. Most wheels have two vertical dominant diamonds. Casinos try to prevent dominant diamonds from occurring because if the ball falls at a particular point around the wheel more often than not, the ball is not falling randomly. In such a situation, savvy players can estimate where the ball will fall and that gives them an advantage. Players who know the wheel orientation at the time of ball fall have an advantage.

To summarize, where there are dominant diamonds the ball will hit some diamonds more than others. This can happen in a land-based casino when the ball track is more worn in some parts of the ball track than in others so if the casino isn’t rotating the wheel daily and with other manufacturing and maintenance issues. Some professionals even say that regardless of how often the casino rotates the wheel, and regardless of manufacturing quirks, there is bound to be some wear and tear and some level of dominant diamond action.

On some wheels, the dominant diamond is quite obvious while on other wheels you have to work to figure it out. But if you investigate the wheel a bit you’ll find out which numbers are under the dominant diamond so you can predict where the ball will fall.

Dominant Diamonds occur due to malfunctions of the ball track, rotor, pocket separators, base or shaft. 

Ball Track

The ball track is where the ball rolls. Generally, in a non-virtual setting, it is a wood track that’s coated with a tough epoxy plastic. Like the diamonds, it’s subject to wear, tear and, most notably, cracks. Cracks occur most often when the casino does not rotate the wheel since most of the wear occurs at the same point if the ball is always released from the same position. But even if the wheel is rotated, cracks occur.

Even just a 1mm height difference is enough to cause a dominant diamond, and it’s very difficult for casino staff to prevent, especially if the wheel’s table is on even a very slight angle.

Rotor

The rotor is the inner part of the wheel. The rotor revolves with the pockets. Casinos often interchange wheels of the same design to make it harder for professionals to analyze roulette wheels.  

As the only moving part of the wheel, the rotor is largely responsible for roulette wheel bias. If the wheel is unbalanced or physically imperfect, there will be more predictable spins.

Pockets

The ball comes to rest in the pockets which contain all the winning numbers. Wheel designers change the pocket designs on a regular basis from deep to shallow to anywhere in-between. If the pockets are too deep the spin becomes more predictable.

The pocket separators -- the pieces of metal between the pockets -- can become loose at which point one pocket will absorb the impact of the roulette ball more than other pockets. If that happens, one part of the roulette wheel is significantly different than the other parts and wheel bias occurs.

Base

The base is the outer part of the wheel -- generally wooden with a metal interior. The base is quite tough and it’s almost impossible to change a base to the point where a crack or scratch will change the trajectory of the ball. Therefore, manufacturing or maintenance problems with the base are almost never a cause of wheel bias.

Shaft

The wheel rotor is supported by the shaft (also called the spindle). If the spindle is bent the rotor will spin on a slight angle. This causes the ball to land on the lower part of the wheel more frequently.  

If you’re observant and know what you’re doing you can frequently identify some of the defects that create non-random spins. It’s not easy to identify these types of aberrations but even if you don’t find abnormalities in the wheel, it’s important to know that they exist and consider how they might impact on your game.  Of course, all this refers to land-based roulette wheels.  Online roulette is, fortunately, not subject to equipment defects.