Useful Roulette Tips

Roulette is definitely not a game that should be played harshly or without thinking at least one step ahead. Taking rash action is a sure way to lose your money and even suffer penalties by the casino. There are special rules and etiquette in place to ensure the smooth operation of the casino floor. Sometimes these go against players’ wishes but casinos enforce them all the same. Since we do not want you to have a bad time at your favourite casino establishment, we have compiled a small list of things that you should avoid and some that you should follow.

• ✓ Table Etiquette
• ✓ Roulette Chips
• ✓ Understand the Rules
• ✓ Find a Game with French Rules
• ✓ Learn to Manage Your Money
• ✓ Gambling Fallacies

General Roulette Table Etiquette and Rules

First things first; when sitting at a table, don’t forget to stack up on some roulette chips, because as we remember, roulette cannot be played using cash or casino checks. You can buy chips after each spin directly from the dealer, but you do have to wait for them to finish removing any winning markers (and paying-off the people who’ve won).

When placing a bet on the layout, be very careful not to overlap some other number/line by accident. The casino holds no responsibility when a player messes up their bet and will act upon what is showing on the layout. If for example you’ve just won a straight bet, but due to carelessness and in the spur of the moment you had unintentionally placed the chip over the line separating your number, from a neighbouring number, the dealer will recognize this as a split and pay what any split is worth – 17 to 1.

When you see that someone already has a chip (or stack of chips) on whatever bet you were planning on making, don’t worry. Because each player is using a differently coloured stack of chips, piling bets on top of each other is perfectly acceptable.

The way you know that the ‘betting round’ is over, is at the exact moment the ball hits the roulette wheel. This is not a solid rule per se (professional players do sometimes place their bets after the ball is in motion), but due to their lack of experience, new players are advised to bet as fast as possible.

Roulette Chips Stay at The Table

Players are not allowed to remove the coloured chips from the table. These are meant specifically for the roulette table and if you are careless enough to walk away with them, it could go badly.

Some casinos might not be so forgiving as to let you go with a simple slap on the wrist. Taking chips from the table might be interpreted as stealing. The dealers usually don’t keep track of how many chips each player has after a few spins. Should you wish to leave (or go to the rest-room), you have to forfeit your seat and cash all the roulette chips you have on the table.

There are still many new players, who simply forget that they are not supposed to take chips with them when they leave the roulette table. Issues like this are often resolved within minutes. Unless it becomes a habit, in which case the person might be questioned by the floor security, which is never a good thing.

Understand the Rules Before You Play

It goes without saying that you should not play a game of chance without knowing what the rules are first. Luckily, roulette is a game that anyone can grasp after a few minutes. The rules are quite simple and once you understand the probabilities and odds at winning, you can even do alright at it. Casinos might even give you a leaflet which outlines the basic rules to get you started. Still, you should not rely on that alone and study the game properly to become a master at it. For your convenience, we have a full guide on how each roulette variation works, the house edge and RTP values of the roulette table, and even betting systems that you may want to employ.

Find a Game with French Rules

It is no secret that the rules of roulette vary slightly between the different variations. There are three main ones currently in the world – French, American, and European Roulette. To the uninitiated, they may all look the same but there are small differences that have a lasting impact on the gameplay.

French and European tables use a 37-pocket wheel, whereas the American game uses a 38-pocket one. Since payouts are the same across the board, French and European Roulette are the superior games in terms of odds and probabilities. Still, French Roulette surpasses its European counterpart by implementing the ‘en prison’ and ‘la partage’ rules. Only one of them can be found at any particular table but both serve the same purpose – to cut down the house edge by half on certain outside bets.

This means that French Roulette is the most favourable variation when it comes to pure numbers. If you are looking for the most optimal roulette game, go with the French version.

Learn to Manage Your Money

The key to having money at the end of your gambling sessions is knowing how to handle it properly. This is not shown in any of the movies that glamorise gaming but it is something that will only work in your favour. While you cannot control the outcome of a game – this is what gambling is all about, after all – you can control how much you bet at a time. A lack of impulse control is every bettor’s worst enemy. Placing that one final bet where you hope to win back everything you lost up to that point is never a good idea. In most cases, it is a better choice to simply cut your losses and go home.

Money management is not nearly as fun as watching the wheel spin but it will prove to be the most useful skill on the casino floor. Naturally, this skill is better put to use when losing rather than when you are on a winning streak. Regardless, knowing when to stop will keep your head above water and you may be able to come back the next for a better outcome.

Gambling Fallacies

The gambling scene has been around for quite a while and over the centuries, countless fallacies and myths have emerged that are perpetuated by players daily. Not only are these not true but they can also be harmful. Therefore, it is a good idea to stay away from and not to fall prey to them.

The first and most common fallacy is the idea of maturing probabilities. It is commonly thought that since a number has not come up in a while that is somehow due in the near future. This is wrong since one spin does not influence the next, nor does it take into account the previous one. Even if the ball has landed on black ten times, the odds of it landing on black again are still approximately 1:1. While a long series of black numbers is unlikely in the short term, it doesn’t mean it’s impossible. What’s more, the odds of roulette are compiled by taking in hundreds of thousands and even millions of spins. By comparison, our example uses only ten previous spins. This sample size is too small to make an accurate assumption.

Another harmful notion is the idea of the ‘near win’. If you bet on 24 but the ball landed in the neighbouring 16 pocket, are you closer to winning than if the ball landed in the 15 pocket which is on the other side of the wheel? The answer to that is no. there is no such thing as a near win in gambling. There is only winning and losing, with nothing in between. This fallacy is more common in slots than in roulette but the thought is the same. Just because the ball fell into a neighbouring pocket does not make the loss any less of a loss. This line of thinking comes from an emotional reaction but it does not have any basis in reality.