How Does Casino Make Money On Roulette
- Casinos don't apply particular countermeasures 'all the time' because they make roulette an overall less profitable game for them. See further examples below, with explanations on how the countermeasure makes winning harder, but overall loses casinos money.
- Casinos make more money when roulette games move quickly and efficiently. Dealers are encouraged to spin the ball and collect bets at a decent pace to make this happen. But worrying about speed can also cause dealers to unconsciously spin the ball the same way every time. This, in turn, leads to what’s called a dealer signature.
- But some believe that it is possible to exploit the way the roulette wheel, and the betting cloth, is laid out to give themselves an advantage. The idea is that you can make bets on the layout in.
- How Does Casino Make Money On Roulette No Deposit
- How Does Casino Make Money On Roulette Games
- How Does Casino Make Money On Roulette Real Money
- How Does Casino Make Money On Roulette Slot Machine
When gamblers first learn the rules of the road in roulette, lessons almost always begin with the distinction between American and European wheels.
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Under the traditional European version of the game, a roulette wheel is outfitted with the numbers 1 through 36 in alternating red and black spaces — plus a single green “0” space working for the house. With 37 spaces on the wheel in total, the house edge on every available wager stands at 2.70%.
When enterprising casino operators saw an opportunity to increase their profit margins, American roulette wheels featuring both the “0” and “00” green spaces were born. These 38-space wheels nearly double the house edge players are up against to 5.26%.
After learning this fundamental rule — which inherently forms the foundational strategy of roulette game selection — most roulette students quickly move on to learning the various wager types.
Once they’ve memorized the three “outside” bets (red or black, odd or even, low or high), along with the lineup of “inside” bets (single number, street, corner, column, etc.), many roulette novices mistakenly believe they’ve mastered the game.
And without a full picture of how the game is played, many people out there miss easy opportunities to increase their odds over the long run.
To help you avoid that fate, I’ve dug up three little-known rules and strategies most players don’t know about roulette. Read on to expand your knowledge of this great game before heading out to your nearest casino to take advantage of these roulette tips.
1 – “La Partage” in French Roulette
While the vast majority of the 450+ roulette tables found in Las Vegas use American rules, and a handful offer European rules in exchange for a higher minimum bet, there’s actually a third version of the game to watch for — French roulette.
Roulette itself is a game originating in France, of course, but among veteran players, the term French roulette refers to a specific set of rules known as “La Partage.”
La Partage translates to “the divide” in English, which makes perfect sense considering how the rule works.
French roulette using La Partage is played on a European single-zero wheel. Because the European gambling community largely prefers the game’s even-money wagers — red or black, odd or even, low (1-18) or high (19-36) — casinos use the La Partage rule to protect even-money bettors from the dreaded green “0” space.
When the La Partage rule is in effect, and the ball finds its way to the “0” space, the croupier will immediately pay back half of any even-money bet on the board. Thus, if you had a $20 bet on red, for example, you’d receive a $10 rebate if the ball lands on green “0.”
The other half of these even-money bets is still claimed by the house, but players benefit immensely by having their liability reduced by 50%.
Under the La Partage rule, the house edge on a French roulette wheel’s even-money wagers is sliced neatly in two, falling from 2.70% to 1.35%.
When compared to American double-zero roulette, playing with La Partage in effect drops the house edge on even-money bets from 5.26% to 1.35%.
French roulette is obviously far more prevalent in Europe than it is in the United States, but gamblers visiting Las Vegas can find a handful of tables scattered across Sin City.
Using the invaluable Wizard of Vegas Las Vegas roulette survey — which classifies French wheels under the heading “EURO” — you’ll find La Partage gameplay offered at the following casinos.
French La Partage Roulette Tables in Las Vegas
Casino | Table(s) | Minimum | Maximum |
---|---|---|---|
Aria | 1 | $50 | $1,000 |
Bellagio | 2 | $50 | $1,000 |
Encore | 1 | $100 | $5,000 |
Mandalay Bay | 2 | $50 | $500 |
MGM Grand | 2 | $25 | $1,000 |
Mirage | 2 | $100 | $1,000 |
Wynn | 1 | $100 | $5,000 |
As you can see, the price players pay for that reduced house edge is a higher minimum bet threshold. You’ll need to bet between $50 and $100 for the most part, but remember, those minimum limits can be covered by multiple even-money outside bets.
And for the very best French roulette game in all of Las Vegas, head to the MGM Grand casino on the Strip, where La Partage rules can be played for just a $25 minimum bet.
On a final note, if you make your way to Atlantic City, enjoy the East Coast gambling capital’s generous variation of La Partage.
When playing roulette in A.C., all even-money bets on American double-zero wheels will receive a one-half rebate when the ball lands on “0” or “00.” This reduces the house edge on even-money wagers from 5.26% to 2.63%.
2 – Playing as a Team to Maximize Your Comp Count
Based on its status as a pure game of chance — and one with a relatively high house edge on American double-zero wheels — roulette is a favorite for casino operators.
Skilled players can’t beat them to the punch like they can in blackjack or video poker, and all bets are resolved immediately, unlike in craps where players can stretch a single bet out for several rolls.
Throw in a brisk pace of play, with a new spin starting every minute or so, and casinos consider roulette to be a cash cow.
But even as the casinos in Nevada hauled in over $384 million on roulette wins alone last year, players in the know were able to subsidize their play through the lucrative comp system.
Casino comps come in many forms, but for the most part, players parlay their time at the tables into cash credits good at the in-house retail outlets, buffet vouchers, show tickets, and even free rooms.
From there, the table game pit boss will track your average wagers and hours played before awarding comp points to your account.
Fortunately for roulette players, the casino industry prioritizes games of chance like roulette, baccarat, and slots over the skill-games like blackjack and video poker.
And as you can see in the table below, American double-zero roulette is by far the juiciest game for comp chasers to play.
Casino Comp Formula for Table Games
Game | Comps Earned Per Hour ($10 bets) |
---|---|
Roulette (double-zero) | $17 |
Roulette (single-zero) | $9.1 |
Baccarat | $7.8 |
Craps | $7.5 |
Blackjack | $5.2 |
While wagering in $10 average units, players on the double-zero wheel can earn $17 per hour in comp dollars. That’s more than double what baccarat and craps enthusiasts earn and more than triple the rate for blackjack play.
But unlike these other games, which play out in a zero-sum dynamic pitting player against the house, roulette allows for a little loophole of sorts.
One of the “secret” strategies utilized by sharp roulette players takes advantage of the binary even-money wagers on the board. By playing as a team along with a partner, you can easily stretch a small bankroll over the course of several hours while piling up the comp points.
All you need to do is bet on one side of an even-money wager while your partner takes the other side. With you betting on black and their money on red, you’ll both have a 47.37% chance to win even-money and a 47.37% chance to lose your bet.
That leaves just a 5.26% shot that both of you will lose when the ball finds a green “0” or “00” space.
By playing like this, you and your partner will essentially be passing bets back and forth, winning and losing roughly half the time. The goal here isn’t to win money on the tables, as your bets will always balance the other’s out.
Instead, you’re trying to tread water and stay on the tables for as long as possible, all while your comp account receives a steady stream of points.
It is important to point out, however, that even the best of comps will not outweigh the house edge. Never play for longer than you would have otherwise just to collect comps. In the long run, you’ll still lose more than you gain.
3 – “Sands” Roulette and Other Triple-Zero Wheels
You’ve learned about single-zero and double-zero wheels, so let’s dive into the scourge known as “Sands Roulette.”
Introduced in 2016 by the Venetian Sands corporation, which runs the Venetian and Palazzo casinos in Vegas, Sands Roulette adds a third green house space to the wheel. This space simply reads “S,” hence the name, but it essentially serves as a supplement to the “0” and “00” spaces.
Unless you wager on the “S,” your inside and outside bets will all lose if the ball lands there.
This triple-zero version of the game was rolled out to exploit uninformed tourists who don’t know any better. The additional house space increases the house edge from 5.26% to 7.69%, making it one of the worst table games on any casino floor.
The bastardization of roulette is catching on too, apparently, as casino game designer TCS John Huxley has recently added SATURN™ Triple Zero Roulette tables to its inventory.
When you see one of these trash tables, turn tail and run.
Conclusion
Roulette stands out as one of the rare pure games of chance, what with its flattened house edge rates and inability to influence where the ball will wind up.
Nonetheless, savvy players know how to give themselves every possible advantage by exploiting the rules and strategies described above.
Now that you know the score, be sure to play roulette under optimal conditions whenever the circumstances allow.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Roulette is one of the most popular table games in modern casinos. Although variations on the game have been around for several hundred years, there are now only 3 variations in American casinos.
You’re likely already familiar with American roulette and European roulette. The most recent addition to the table game inventory is Sands Roulette.
Which of these games should you play?
How should you bet on them?
What’s the smartest strategy for roulette betting?
I’ll explain all that in this post:
What Are the Differences between American, European, and Sands Roulette?
Although these games have a few other differences, the most significant distinction between the 3 versions of roulette are the number of green slots the wheels contain.
Every roulette wheel has at least 37 slots.
36 of those slots are always numbered 1 to 36, and they’re alternately colored RED or BLACK.
The additional slots are green.
In European roulette there is only one green slot, the “0”.
In American roulette there are two green slots: “0” and “00”.
In Sands roulette a third green slot, “S”, has been added to the wheel.
The green slots are there for one reason:
They make the game’s statistical probabilities uneven.
This is because of the way roulette bets are paid off. You can win anywhere from 35-to-1 (for betting on a single number) down to 1-to-1 (for betting on 18 slots at a time).
The payoffs, called “odds”, are not as fair to you as the actual estimated probabilities of the roulette ball landing on any given slot. This is how the casino makes its money.
In a game of roulette the house should keep at least 2.70% of all the bets players make over time. The casino has no need to cheat the players. In fact, the players often make really bad bets that improve the “house edge”, as that casino profit is called.
One of the other differences between European roulette and both American and Sands roulette is that the European roulette table has an additional betting area. This secondary betting area is used to place specially designed bets. They are more complicated than the normal bets made in American and Sands roulette. I’m going to ignore this section of the table, because I’m going to show you how to place bets that have the best chances of paying off.
Is There a Winning System for Roulette?
Everyone who gets into roulette sooner or later starts to think about how they can “beat the system”.
I’m going to be honest here:
There is no way to do that.
The green slots on the wheel make it impossible for anyone, anywhere, to ever design a betting system that is guaranteed to win. If you really want to guarantee yourself a win every time, then put a chip on each of the 2-to-1 outside bets and on each of the green number bets.
That’s the only way you’ll be paid money every time the wheel spins.
You’ll also go broke.
You may have heard about a system called the Martingale System. It’s a popular betting system with new roulette players.
Experienced roulette players just turn their heads and roll their eyes when someone mentions the Martingale System. The only way you can make money with the Martingale System is to write a book about it and get people to buy your book.
Even that’s a gamble, though, because most people now know that the Martingale System promises more than it delivers.
Here’s how this system works:
You start out betting the minimum. If you lose, you double your bet. If you win on your doubled bet, you go back to betting the table minimum. If you lose again, you double the size of your bet again.
This sounds great to inexperienced bettors but the problem is that you’ll either run out of money or hit the table limit before you can recoup your losses as they add up.
The Martingale System is a sucker bet, plain and simple.
Every betting system in every form of gambling tries to leverage probability theory. The Martingale System and other roulette betting strategies also rely on probability estimates.
But there’s a flaw in the thinking behind these systems. If you account for the flaw you’ll be okay. You won’t always win but your expectations will be more reasonable.
The secret to not going broke when you gamble is to set reasonable expectations and maintain your self-discipline. You should never drink or take drugs when you gamble. They lower your inhibitions and impair your judgment.
You might as well just hand your money over to the casino at the cashier window and say “keep it” if you’re going to drink or do drugs when you gamble.
How Do Probabilities Work in Roulette?
Probability theory came out of statistics. It tries to give us rules by which to guess what happens next in any situation. The guesses are seldom accurate predictions. Sometimes the guesses work out, and sometimes they don’t. Gamblers love probability theory because they think it helps them pick the best betting strategies.
You’re actually more likely to double your money during a roulette session if you put all your money on a single bet. The more bets you place, the less likely it becomes to double your money.
That’s because every bet brings you close to the long term expectations. The closer you are to the short term, the more likely you are to get better than expected results.
In roulette, the probabilities are simple. The dealer spins the wheel and releases a ball that whirls around the outside of the wheel and finally settles in a slot. With only 37 slots on a European roulette wheel you have a 1-in-37 probability of the ball landing on a specific slot.
This probability never changes.
This probability is calculated on the basis of all the known possibilities.
What probability theory cannot do, however, is predict where the ball will stop.
Nor can it predict whether the ball will land on red, black, or green any number of times over the next 100 spins.
Nonetheless, a lot of gambling guides tell you that you have the best chances of winning if you do this because of such-and-such probabilities. And many of these guides warn you that there is no way to predict the future, but by setting the expectation that the ball will land on red about 47% of the time, these guides are making predictions and promises they cannot keep.
They’ll even back up their claims by talking about how to run computer simulations for 1 million spins of the wheel so that you see how often the ball lands on red, black, or green.
In the real world the Probability Fairy is always on vacation. She’ll never be there to wave her magic wand to make things happen the way experts say they should. The ball could land on red over the next 20 spins. Or it could land on black or green or some random mix of color combinations.
You have no way of knowing how many of the next [X] spins will turn out a certain way. Talking about probabilities in this way is just dishonest.
What you can do is look at the wheel and ask yourself how much it costs to bet on the largest possible set of numbers. The idea here is to get as much coverage as you can without losing money too fast.
But even if you cover every number on the wheel you’ll lose money.
So the only way to win in roulette–and this is completely random, never guaranteed–is to bet on less than all the numbers on the wheel.
You also want to play bets that pay better than even money. You can place a variety of bets, but most of them aren’t worthwhile.
Betting on single numbers is a bad idea. You can place bets on the lines between the numbers (these are called “street bets”) and on lines at the corners of numbers (these are called “corner bets”).
But even though you get pretty good odds (payoff) you’re still covering too few numbers.
How Bets Work in Roulette
Divide the bets into two groups:
- Inside bets
- Outside bets
Inside bets are based on individual numbers or small groups of numbers. When you see players betting on the lines, corners, and individual numbers on the table they are making inside bets.
Outside bets are based on pre-selected groups of numbers on the wheel. The “2-to-1” bets cover 12 numbers each: 1 to 12, 13 to 24, and 25 to 36. The “1-to-1” or “even money” bets cover 18 numbers each:
- Odd
- Even
- Black
- Red
- 1 to 18
- 19 to 36
The bets more likely to pay are the even money bets.
But unless you can win 5 times out of 9 on even money bets you’ll lose your stake. That’s the problem with roulette. You always have to win at least 1 more time than you lose no matter how you place your bets.
How Does Casino Make Money On Roulette No Deposit
The “2 to 1” bets pay better than the “1 to 1” bets because they cover fewer numbers. You have less of a chance of winning.
There are 6 types of “2 to 1” bets:
- 3 kinds of dozens bets: (1 to 12, 13 to 24, and 25 to 36)
- 3 kinds of columns bets: ([1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31, 34], [2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29, 32, 35], [3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36]).
You can make a bet by betting on any two of the “2 to 1” groups. That means that instead of covering only 18 numbers you’ll be covering 24 numbers.
This type of bet is often called the “double dozen” bet. It’s popular among gamblers who like to hedge their bets. They have a better chance (all other things considered) of scoring a win with a “double dozen” than with one of the standard even money bets. If you’re playing it safe and going for even money odds, you should always play a double dozen bet.
If you want to bet more aggressively, then instead of betting more money on your double dozen, you can cover all 36 of the red and black numbers. Leave the green numbers alone. Yes, they’ll come in every now and then, and you’ll lose money.
But there’s a way to keep your losses low.
How to Bet on Columns or Dozens Aggressively
Take 6 chips and distribute them across EITHER the three dozen bets or the three column bets.
Place 3 chips on 1, 2 chips on the 2nd, and 1 chip on the 3rd. If the ball lands on a green number you’ll lose your entire bet, so always play the table minimum with this aggressive style.
If the ball lands on any number with your single chip bet, you’ll win 2 chips and lose 5–for a net loss of 3 chips (half your bet).
That’s the safest way to bet aggressively on the table.
If the ball lands on any number in your 2 chip bet you’ll win 4 chips and lose 4 for no loss. This keeps you in the game.
If the ball lands on any number in your 3chip bet, you’ll win 6 chips and lose 3 for a net gain of 3 chips. This will offset 1 single chip win.
The way this betting strategy works out, your money can grow substantially and still take some big hits. Where the strategy will fail you is when the ball lands on green or if the ball lands on the single chip bet more often than it lands on the 3 chip bet.
Sorry, but there’s no way to prevent that from happening.
How Does Casino Make Money On Roulette Games
There Is No Guaranteed Way to Win in Roulette
I can’t say this often enough:
You can’t win at roulette in the long run.
How Does Casino Make Money On Roulette Real Money
I think roulette is a fun game to play. It’s exciting because you don’t know where the ball will land. You take an active role in making your wagers.
How Does Casino Make Money On Roulette Slot Machine
And you’ll find there are a lot of different betting systems to experiment with. The only thing that is guaranteed in roulette is that the casino will make a profit. What you hope for is that they make their profit at someone else’s expense.
Players who try to improve their luck by making big bets do sometimes win, but most often the people who come out ahead are the patient players who use conservative betting strategies and take money off the table. If you only walk away with your beginning stake you’ll be luckier than most gamblers.
And you can take that to the bank.