9 Roulette Wheel Secrets the Casino Doesn’t Want You to Know
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Roulette is without question one of the most popular casino games. It can be played with no skill and you can find a roulette table almost in just about every casino in the world, online or live.
Roulette is purely a game of luck, but if you learn these roulette secrets, you can significantly improve your odds of winning.
Above all, it’s important to keep in mind that all gambling games are nothing more than entertainment. The casino wants to cash in on your desire to win. Therefore, they make it very hard for you to not only realize how much you are losing but to quit playing whether you’re up or down.
These tips will help you hedge your losses and maximize your enjoyment.
1 – Aggressive Minimum Bet
The Aggressive Minimum Bet really is a conservative system for betting on roulette. This simple method entails slightly more risk than the simple “two dozen bet”. However, it also provides a bigger upside.
Make three 2-to-1 bets. This way you cover all but the green slots. Note that three equal bets paying 2-to-1 odds will lose money every time. So, you must vary the bet amounts.
Place your bets as such:
- Three times the table minimum
- Two times the table minimum
- One times the table minimum
In European roulette, you have a 36 in 37 chance that the ball will stop on one of your numbers. You are hoping it hits a number in either of your biggest bets. You’ll make a profit on the spin and keep one of your two higher bets on the table.
If your lowest bet comes in, your net loss will only be 3 times the table minimum. Of course, in the worst-case scenario, the wheel hits zero and you lose all three bets.
As long as you stay close to the table minimum you should be okay.
So, what is the catch? Well, the game is completely random and unpredictable. There is no such thing as an equal distribution of wealth in roulette.
So, don’t put too much faith in simulations and statistical models. This betting method may net you more money than the simple “two dozen bet” described above, but it’s riskier.
2 – Difference Between an Announced and Called
When you play an “Announced Bet” you tell the croupier you want to bet “Voisins du Zero” or “Tiers du Cylindre” or whichever bet you wish to play. You must pass over the correct number of chips for that bet and the croupier places them for you.
When you play a “Call Bet” you tell the croupier which bet you want and you keep your chips until you lose. This is described as “playing on credit” in some sources and may be illegal in your jurisdiction.
3 – There Is More Bias in the Spinner Than in the Wheel
You may have heard that roulette wheels can develop a bias. The idea is that as a wheel develops wear and tear in certain places over time.
Also, some wheels may have inherent flaws due to the manufacturing process. A few mathematicians have proven that computers can be used to predict where the ball will land on a biased wheel.
Casinos strictly forbid people from employing devices to analyze games. But you may still be tempted to look for bias in the hope of guesstimating the result of the spin.
This is, to put it frankly, the longest of long shots. But if you’re going to look for bias, watch the person spins the wheel. Although casinos should train their croupiers to vary their actions, you may discover someone who consistently goes through the same routine.
4 – Online Roulette Wheels
Online roulette games rely on random number generators to simulate all the conditions of a live table game. However, there is one thing the simulations don’t include, the wear and tear on the wheel.
You’re always playing with a perfect roulette wheel in a computer game. If you think you can detect bias, and you see it in an online game, that is a pretty good indicator that you can’t detect bias.
5 – Being Consistent Pays
When you play roulette, pick an amount you will bet with every spin. It should be low enough to help you weather some losses and large enough for you to get excited when you win. Then choose the bets that represent the amount of risk you’re willing to take.
As long as you stick to your chosen strategy you’ll always know that you’ve likely eliminated the worst-case scenario. Since you’re gambling you’re already hoping for something better than that.
So, you should be much more at ease to enjoy yourself.
6 – The Martingale Strategy Is a Waste of Money
The idea behind this strategy is very basic. You just double your bet on the next spin every time you lose. Everyone who does the math realizes that after 8 losses in a row you can no longer double your bet because you hit the table maximum.
Increasing your bets increases your risk. The game is designed to leverage your risk against the casino’s risk. In other words, the more risk that players take the less risk the casino incurs.
I once had a buddy drag me 4 hours to a casino for this foolproof system he had. Less than 2 hours after we arrived I was sitting penniless in his truck taking a nap. When he eventually lost his significantly bigger bankroll, I rather enjoyed the somber ride home.
I didn’t enjoy telling my dad I had lost my rent money on this great investment opportunity. Kids, sigh.
7 – The Human Element
Most casino staff have, at best, an elementary understanding of how roulette is beaten.
However, modern and well-equipped casinos have the ability to see when their wheels are producing predictable spins, at least with older roulette systems and strategies.
But casinos are still behind the modern techniques to beat roulette. For example, most casinos have software that analyzes spins and reveals any significant bias. It takes the casino weeks of spins before they have enough data to analyze it though.
Meaning a professional wheel bias player can use techniques that find bias before the casino knows about it.
Generally I don’t advise wheel bias techniques as there are much better and quicker methods of beating roulette.
8 – Bet the Max
I can’t think of a more aggressive betting strategy than putting the table limit down on a single spin.
If that’s your entire gambling bankroll, you’re going home really soon if you lose. So, try finding a table with lower Min/Max. Some players go for broke and bet the table limit every spin.
This takes fortitude, deep pockets, and plenty of faith in your random good fortune. Hopefully, you’re just playing the game for fun and not using the mortgage payment.
Still, your chances of winning that spin are just as good as if you only bet the table minimum.
9 – All Bets Are Only for You
The house edge seems low when you look at roulette math. So why do casinos love roulette? As more players join a game the casinos leverage their losses against their wins.
Casinos want to only pay players’ wins from other players’ losses. Hence, calculating a house edge can be misleading.
This extreme example shows why the house edge is not that important. Five players each bet the minimum on a different single number in European roulette. Their chances of winning are 37-to-1. If any of them win, he is paid 36-to-1. The casino leverages the other 4 players’ losses to reduce its own loss.
So our five players keep placing single number bets. The casino is always guaranteed to take in at least four bets. It really doesn’t matter that the casino’s chances of winning all five bets on any spin are 32 out of 37. The casino only needs 7 wins to come out ahead on that first 36-to-1 payoff. The players are far less likely to win again in that period.
The house edge on an individual bet plays less of a role in the casino’s accounting than it does in yours. Hence, making more bets helps the casino offset its losses against you.
That is why you should only spread your bets on low-risk choices.
Conclusion
If you think roulette wheels have totally random spins, simply check how often the ball hits specific diamonds. The truth is it may be impossible to make a roulette wheel with truly unpredictable spins.
In my experience, almost every wheel design can be beaten one way or another, at least in average casino conditions. Yet, some wheels are in conditions that make play impractical. An example is where it spins very infrequently in a busy casino, so you can’t get reasonable data in a sensible amount of time.
Even with the latest technology and wheel designs, I expect roulette will still be beatable for some time to come. The wheels from a decade ago are very similar to the ones today.
Of course, casinos aren’t panicking about professional roulette players because they primarily rely on casino surveillance to detect professional players before they win too much. That’s why the real key to winning at roulette is not so much the system, but more about avoiding detection.
Nevertheless, roulette is getting harder to beat. Nothing lasts forever, and I expect that in the next decade or so, there may be too few opportunities for professional roulette players to earn a living.
It doesn’t mean it won’t be possible, but it would just be much more difficult than it is today.
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