Online Roulette – A Brief Introduction

Roulette is one of the oldest and most revered casino games out there. Every gambling establishment worth its salt will have some form of roulette table on the gaming floor. The popularity of roulette is unmatched in the West and it is often used as the face of casino gaming. With the introduction of online casinos in the 90s, roulette was one of the first game types to be brought over into the digital format. As a result, players now had the opportunity to play remotely and enjoy themselves just as much.

If you are new to this game genre, please read on as we touch on many of the basic aspects of roulette and how it functions.

Roulette Basics

Roulette is a table game of chance that is popular in online casinos. The name, roulette, means “little wheel” in French. That’s exactly what it involves, a little wheel with a raised perimeter that spins around a central spike. The inside of the wheel is divided by radial spokes which form pockets of alternating color, black and red, and each marked by a number. The numbers are out of order, in the range of 1 to 36, with a single green pocket numbered 0. That makes 37 pockets in European roulette, although American roulette has an additional green 00 pocket. The double-zero pocket makes 38 numbered pockets in the American variation. As the wheel spins around in one direction, the dealer, also called croupier, throws a small ball into the wheel in the other direction. Players bet on where the ball will rest once it stops spinning. American roulette differs from European roulette because there is an extra zero, the double-zero, creating 37 numbered pockets on the wheel. The rest of the game is played the same way, but this does alter the odds of winning.

• ✓ Roulette Basics
• ✓ How to Play Roulette Online
• ✓ Virtual Roulette vs Traditional Roulette
• ✓ Live Roulette
• ✓ Security and Responsibility
• ✓ Mobile Roulette
• ✓ Bets and Strategy

How to Play Roulette Online

There are many places to play online roulette. Games are available in a selection of different styles and softwares and encourage roulette strategy. Downloadable software requires a compatible computer, but flash-based games lack even that restriction. Numerous free games are fun, and can be transitioned to real money games easily enough. The random odds of the game can be emulated by software in software-based roulette.

Otherwise, one can remotely see and play a live game at a casino from the comfort of a personal computer. As the legality of gambling varies from region to region, checking the local restrictions and a website’s compliance with that locality’s laws can save some trouble later. Overall, the idea is to have fun, and getting arrested for illegal gambling is few people’s idea of a good time.

Virtual Roulette vs Traditional Roulette

As you can imagine, playing roulette online is a different experience than doing it on the casino floor. Since online roulette is entirely software-based, every aspect of it is digital. From the wheel to the betting layout, everything is rendered by your device. In order to assure genuine randomness to the game’s results, casinos use RNG software. This technology produces long strings of code which provide truly unbiased results. The RNG systems are verified by regulatory institutions to be absolutely sure no tampering has taken place.

It is the RNG software that produces results, rather than the wheel, which is just for show. The primary difference between physical and virtual roulette is that the latter is not dictated by the laws of physics. Unlike physical roulette, the virtual version does not suffer from biased wheels or human intervention. As a result, you can always be sure that the game is fair and your experience genuine.

Live Roulette

Sometime during the mid-2000s, software providers had the bright idea of introducing live dealer roulette to the masses. Unlike its virtual counterpart, live roulette is a physical game, with a real wheel and croupier. Players place bets using the digital interface while the ball spins in the wheel and produces an outcome.

With live roulette, players now had the chance to experience traditional casino gaming directly from the comfort of their own homes. What’s more, live roulette also has some advantages over the real thing. For one, it can accommodate an infinite number of players at the table and gives the opportunity to place intricate bets with ease.

Security and Responsibility

One must be wary of malware and attackers, however, by sticking with reputable sites and not getting duped by extravagant, unrealistic money promises. There are several regulatory authorities that insist on fair gaming. Only use sites that have been vetted by verifiable regulatory authorities. These agencies set guidelines for software, information servers, and methods of payment. In addition, many website require members to set betting limits, and employ limits to each table.

In the United Kingdom, the regulatory authority is the United Kingdom Gambling Commission. This institution oversees all gambling operations in the country and ensures that companies abide by laws and regulations. Currently, the UKGC is one of the most respected institutions of its kind in the world and it has done a brilliant job at ensuring proper standards for iGaming. Any casino holding a UKGC license is worthy of your trust and you can rely on it to provide a safe and fair roulette experience.

All of the online casinos mentioned on our website are legitimate gambling operations. As such, they are subject to the regulations of the UKGC or another European institution. This means that you can trust any of them from the get-go.

Mobile Roulette

In today’s iGaming scene, there is no need to stay chained to your desk if you wish to enjoy a round of roulette. Modern online casinos have been offering mobile gaming for years and you will have the opportunity to play on the go at just any website out there. Mobile roulette is no different than its desktop counterpart and you can have just as much fun on your mobile device. There are plenty of mobile roulette options out there on account of software providers doing everything to make every player feel welcome.

Developers go to great lengths to ensure that mobile roulette is perfectly playable for everyone. The largest changes come in the form of the different interface of the game. Mobile roulette titles take full advantage of your display’s size and resolution. This gives you the opportunity to enjoy your favourite game without having to sacrifice any of its functionality or features.

Bets and Strategy

Roulette’s popularity comes from the use of a balanced wheel and ball that creates true random chance. As neither the ball nor the wheel remember previous plays, the chance of the ball landing in any pocket is reset for each play. Prior performance has nothing to do with future performance. Also, keep in mind that the existence of one more pocket decreases a player’s odds of winning. So, European games have a 2.7% house advantage, and American roulette has a 5.25% house advantage.

While the odds of the two styles might be different, they both share most of the same bets. As such, transitioning from an American table to a European one is easy and vice versa. Some common plays include betting on a particular colour, betting on a set of neighbouring numbers, a whole quarter or half of the wheel, single numbers, and evens or odds. The options are plentiful and this is one of the best aspects of roulette. You can choose the amount of risk you wish to take on any particular bet. Of course, the risk correlates with the reward. If one spin you want to score a large win, a straight-up bet will do the job. However, if you want to take it slow on the next spin, betting on colour is always a good choice. Remember, though, that the game involves the vagaries of a spinning wheel and a bouncing ball, so no strategy promises a win every time.

Nevertheless, one can employ roulette strategies to help win in online roulette. There are a bunch of betting systems currently in existence and most of them can be applied to roulette in some capacity. We have covered several of them and you can freely read up on them. Betting strategies vary in the risk you wish to take and in their overall goal. There are conservative systems, which prioritize maintaining a stable bankroll. Others aim to get you the highest payouts, though this also involves a higher degree of uncertainty. Whatever your play style is, there is a betting system to match it.

Overall, roulette is a simple yet sophisticated game of chance that offers entertainment, but no guarantee of winning. At the end of the day, winning is not guaranteed. However, with enough knowledge of the game, you might just get an edge and come out ahead. We have prepared articles on all major aspects of roulette where we go into detail how the game works. Be sure to check them out to gain some insight into the intricacies of roulette.