Even if you’ve never played roulette before it’s likely you will have seen the big wheel at some point. Ever wonder where did someone get the idea from?

It was actually created in France in the 18th Century and funnily translates to ‘little wheel’. Although historians would argue that Blaise Pascal (a famous mathematician) had developed an earlier version a century before whilst working on a perpetual motion machine.

When looking at the mechanism itself, it’s just a combination of the 18th century wheel and the french board game Birbi (which is just a game of chance) that inspired bingo and lottery games.

Roulette is always classy

You’ll know from watching films like Ocean’s Twelve and Casino Royale that roulette wheels are shrouded in upper class traditions and often feature well-dressed men and adoring women.

Online however is a different story, you can find lots of variations in a place where you don’t need to confine to the dress code etiquette and you can play right from your computer or phone from wherever you choose.

Rules When Playing Roulette

European roulette

To put it simply, you play with just the wheel and a ball. The wheel has numbers 0-36 and players can place bets on multiple numbers, single numbers, on the colours red or black, odds or evens. Or you can even select a range; high is 19-36 or low 1-18.

A croupier (the person appointed at the table to assist the game) will spin the wheel and the ball moves along in the opposite direction above the numbers on the circular track. As the wheel slows down, the ball falls between the grooves of the numbers until the wheel finally stops and the ball takes its final position.

American Roulette

That however is the classic European version, when playing American Roulette you get a double zero which is placed on each side. As software developers have tried to evolve the game and make it more exciting for players, you’ll find improved graphics and unique wheel rules so that the game’s take on a version of their own.

You will rarely find two types of roulette that work in exactly the same way.

When you look even further into online roulette, you’ll find why it is so popular in online casinos.

Walking the Walk with Roulette

We know reading about roulette is one thing, but playing is a different ball game altogether (literally!). The experience of online roulette continues to change thanks to the introduction of live dealer games in 2003, and then in 2012 mobile roulette games were launched.

This was great news for the player as the wider the variety of available games, the higher the likelihood to win! The gameplay is always changing making for a more exciting experience.

Although you can put on your suit if you want to play online (we don’t judge) no-one’s going to know if you stay in your pajamas and have fun spinning!

You can gain your own edge through a number of strategies that involve mathematical reasoning. They can’t guarantee a win, however, they can help increase your chances of winning and help reduce your losses.

Which Casinos have noted below the main two popular systems used when playing roulette:

The Martingale System – Starting on the 18th Century, this is one of the oldest betting systems. If you bet £10 on either red or black and continue to do so each time you win. When you lose, you’ll double the amount until you win again and go back to £10 per bet. We’ve broken it down for you more clearly below:

You bet £10 on black
You win and bet £10 on black again
You then lose, so you bet £20 on black. You lose again, so you bet £40 on black.
You lose again, so you bet £80 on black.
You then win, you’ll now be £20 ahead.

Your chances can go from between 47% to 86% if you have enough of a bank roll. But as always there are some flaws. You’ll find most tables do have a betting limit, therefore doubling your bet can only get you so far. We have known some casinos banning players who play this way so just be mindful of that when adopting this strategy.

The Labouchère System– This system is a little more complex but it can still help you win. Also going by the names “cancellation system” or “split martingale”. The idea is that the player decided before they play how much money they want to win, they then write down a list of positive numbers that equal their decided amount.

So let’s try it, start by writing out a list of numbers like this, 1-2-3 and assign each number a monetary value, so £1, £2, £3. Then bet an amount that adds up to the first and last number. We’ve put some examples of this below, you can see that where we lose we add the next number to the end, but if we win, we cross off both numbers from the list.

Bet £4 (1+3), lose. Add 4 to the end, leaving 1-2-3-4
Bet £5 (1+4), lose. Add 5 to the end, leaving 1-2-3-4-5
Bet £6 (1+5), win. Remove 1 and 5, leaving 2-3-4
Bet £6 (2+4), lose. Add 6 to the end, leaving 2-3-4-6
Bet £8 (2+6), lose. Add 8 to the end, leaving 2-3-4-6-8
Bet £10 (2+8), win. Remove 2 and 8, leaving 3-4-6
Bet £9 (3+6), win. Remove 3 and 6, leaving 4
Bet £4, lose. Add 4 to the end, leaving 4-4
Bet £8 (4+4), win. Remove 4 and 4, ending the chain.

This strategy is perfect for online roulette games, as it would be a bit complex to take with you to the casino, so online makes it perfect for you to test and see if it works!

Verdict on Roulette Games

I think we’ve given you plenty of information on the rules of roulette as well as the best roulette games out there! As stated at the beginning, here at Which Casinos have chosen our favourite online casinos offering roulette for you to try out.

There’s a variety of roulette games available, with the strategies above giving you a good idea of which one to test.

All roulette games are different, makes sure you understand the rules, then apply the strategy starting small, don’t rush in big until you have a full understanding.