Online Roulette is a popular casino game which takes its name from the French word meaning ‘Small Wheel’. The game is played by a croupier spinning a wheel and a ball, and players placing bets on which numbered pocket the ball will land on. Some players try to calculate, based on many previous spins, where the ball will land. This cannot be done with online roulette, however, as the rolls are randomly generated by a computer instead of a physical wheel. Playing roulette online is a popular pastime for casual gamblers.

Before people were playing Roulette online, it was being played in casinos. The game was devised in 18 th century France, and is believed to have been derived from some English wheel games – Roly-Poly, E&O, and Ace of Hearts, and the Italian board games Hoca and Biribi. The first written reference to roulette was in a document containing regulations for French Quebec in 1758, which noted that the game was banned. Today, online roulette is a mainstay of many peoples entertainment when they visit a casino online.

Top Online Roulette Sites

Roulette evolved gradually over the period of about 100 years. In 1842, two Frenchment, Francois and Louis Blanc, added a 0 to the roulette wheel in order to give the house an advantage. When roulette reached the US a second zero ’00’ was added. The board has stayed in this forum until today, and those playing roulette online at an online casino will recognise the board layout. The payout for online roulette today is slightly different today – in the late 1800s the game offered 27 to 1 payout on all numbers including the 0.
One legend says that Francois Blanc bargained with the devil to learn the secrets of roulette. This comes from the fact that the sum of all the numbers on a roulette wheel is 666 – commonly refered to as ‘The number of the beast’
Roulette is a little different to other games that are commonly played at a casino online, as it is not possible to create a legal system where you can consistently beat the house over time. Albert Einstein once said that the only reliable way to get money from a roulette table was to steal from it. Even so, online roulette is popular, and many people have attempted to come up with ways to reduce the house advantage through taking advantage of the even money bets.

One popular, fun strategy for playing roulette online is to divide the sessions budget into 35 units, and then bet on the same number each time. With this strategy, if your number comes up, you win back the original bankroll and can play the rest of the session on house money. Other strategies involve either betting only on red, or spreading the bets across the 1 st and 3 rd column to give a good chance of at least breaking even over the course of a session.

Is American Online Roulette ever better than European Online Roulette?

When looking at the house edges between American online roulette and European online roulette, any sane person would realize that the European version is far superior. That’s because it features a 2.70% house edge, while American roulette offers a somewhat high 5.26% casino advantage. This being said, the vast majority of players opt for the European wheel when they’re searching for casino or online roulette games.

However, house edges aren’t the only thing to consider with roulette games because certain situations will sometimes make the American wheel a more attractive prospect. And while this doesn’t seem logical, we’ve listed some scenarios below where it makes more sense to play online roulette on the American wheel instead of the European version.

You’re in a United States Casino

Getting the obvious point out of the way first, one of the biggest times where American roulette is a better option than the European game is when it’s your ONLY option. This scenario arises quite often in US casinos because many of their wheels feature 38 numbers with the house-friendly 0 and 00 – rather than European roulette, where there are 37 numbers and only the 0. Unfortunately, those visiting US land-based casinos are often forced to play American roulette because the European wheel isn’t offered. Assuming you’re in this situation, we recommend sticking with online roulette games since you can always find a European wheel here.

European Online Roulette features a High Minimum Bet

Sometimes, even when land-based casinos do offer European wheels, they find back-end ways to shuttle players towards American roulette. And this is normally done through minimum bets, where casinos might make European roulette players place AU$25 wagers or higher. Now some players may not have trouble with this, but others won’t have the bankroll to keep making AU$25 bets. Not surprisingly, their alternative is the American wheel, where enticing AU$5 minimum wagers are offered.

House Edge-reducing Rules are offered

Casinos know that most people who play online roulette games aren’t idiots who would knowingly opt for a higher house edge. So in order to encourage more American roulette participation, some casinos include a version of the La Partage rule that’s seen in European (French) roulette. When this rule is in place, American roulette players who lose even money bets due to the ball landing on 0 or 00 will only lose half their original wager. So if you bet AU$10 and the ball landed on 00, the casino would only take AU$5. The end result is that the house edge drops from 5.26% to 2.63%, which is even lower than regular European roulette. You’ll most often find this rule in Atlantic City or in online roulette games.

There’s a Specific Promotion running

Besides including special rules to make American roulette more attractive, casinos will sometimes run promotions surrounding this game as well. And this is true no matter if you play online roulette games or in land-based casinos because nobody wants their American wheels to remain stagnant all night. So if a casino is offering double VIP/comp points to American roulette players during a certain time period, this sometimes creates advantageous situations for them.

You’ve found a Biased Wheel

The final reason when playing online roulette games on the American wheel makes sense is if you’ve detected a biased wheel. We’ll be the first ones to admit that this is a pretty rare circumstance because A) it takes a ridiculous amount of work/data recording to find a biased wheel, and B) most wheel bias masters wouldn’t waste their time on American wheels. However, those who are good at this practice might spot something out of place on an American roulette wheel and seek to exploit it.

As you can see, there are at least a few different times when you’ll benefit from skipping European roulette in favor of the American version. But in the long-run, your best bet is to play online roulette games if you can’t find land-based European roulette because of the aforementioned lower house edge.