European Roulette Been Here For A Long Time

Roulette is one of the oldest casino games there is. It’s been around for hundreds of years in pretty much the same format. The only thing that has changed is the quality of engineering that goes into making the wheel fair and unbiased. A lot of people think that the American version is the younger form of roulette. This is actually the exact opposite the original game was introduced to America and the alternate version stayed in Europe.

Play European Roulette The Odds Are Better

If you are looking to play European roulette online there are literally thousands of options out there. Roulette is the most popular casino game in the world and European roulette is the most popular version of it. There is a very good reason for this and it is the house edge. European roulette has only one zero pocket in the wheel where as American roulette has two zero pockets (single zero and double zero). This constitutes almost double the house edge. With one zero the percentage works out to be 2.7 in the houses favour with the double zero it jumps to 5.26. The house edge drops even further when the La Partage and En Prison rules are used which is another feature loved by players. This reduces the house percentage by half again to 1.35%.

In Roulette You Want ‘In Prison’ To Be An Option

The La Partage and En Prison relate to the zero pockets. When these rules are part of a game, and you should check carefully before you play, the maths is considerably better for you. Relating to the even money or ‘outside’ bets of red/black, odd/even, high/low, if the ball lands in the zero pocket with the La Partage rule half of all even money bets are returned. If the En Prison rule is used a choice is given to the player if the ball lands in the zero. You may take back half your stake or let the bet ride for the next spin which is the En Prison. If the bet wins the whole stake is returned so it is a break even. If a zero comes again then the wager is lost. This is a big thing when it comes to your expected returns and the ‘American’ version is heavily biased to the house. One extra pocket in the houses favour is huge.

It’s All About The Sums

The maths behind the percentages is quite simple depending on the payout for a straight up stake, most European roulette online pay 35–1
So for European roulette the bet wins 1 in 37 times and loses 36 in 37 so the sum is
-1*36/37+35*1/37=-.0270 (2.70 house edge)
American roulette is 1 in 38 times a win and a loss 37 times in 38 so
-1*37/38+35*1/38=-0.0526 (5.26% house edge)
Factor in the La Partage and the single zero wheel house edge is halved. So the bottom line to all this is the house has a bias but a much smaller one for European Roulette. This has to be said once more though, check all the house rules first. Find out which system is being used as one simple change can make a very big difference to the probability of a win.

Roulette The House Is Supposed To Win

The fact of the matter is online European roulette is a game that is designed in favour the house. Casinos make profit simple. The game of roulette is very entertaining and the chance to win big very tempting. Over the years there have been many systems and theories that have been touted as ways to beat the house. The fact of the matter is you can’t beat maths. Probably the most widely spoken about and used in a lot of betting strategies is the ‘Gamblers Fallacy’. This is the belief that a pattern in the past results can predict the future. For example if the wheel has come in ten times in a row red then black is more likely to come in to balance the probabilities. This is a nonsense because each spin of the wheel has the same chance to be black or red each time. Casino operators love predictive models for roulette and the more players that use them the happier they are. Some of the more famous systems are the Martingale system where you double the stake on even money bets if you lose, and halve the stake if you win. Then there’s the Labouchére which is a similar method but with a series of numbers used to determine the next stake. The ‘Fibonacci system’ using the Fibonacci sequence to determine stake sizing. There is the D’Alembert system again similar but just adding one unit to the stake after loseing and taking one away after winning. All of these systems use the ‘Fallacy’ thinking it is more likely to lose after a win. The probability stays the same, maths doesn’t lie.