Last updated: December 29, 2022
Roulette is a fan favorite among casino goers. It’s easy to learn the game, and the variety of bets means gameplay can be matched to how you like to play. While it is easy to play, there is a lot that goes into mastering roulette, and foolproof tips and tricks will help you improve your winning chances.
Whether you are a new player starting or a long-time lover of the roulette wheel, this guide is packed full of helpful tips and tricks, plus actionable steps that you can implement today. With the information we share here, you’ll be sure to get more out of your gambling with smarter play.
The insights we feature in this player guide apply to online casino roulette and the traditional roulette tables you’ll find at your nearest casino.
Welcome to the beginning of this roulette guide on the best tips and tricks that you’ll need to improve your play. Kicking things off with chapter one of this guide, we share a few of the imperative parts of roulette that are most beneficial for beginners—looking at how the game works, how to deal with losses, as well as the more technical components of the game like the particulars of odds and bets.
Roulette is a beloved casino game with many players enjoying the excitement of the spinning wheel every day. What brings players to this game is the experience and the camaraderie that comes with crowded roulette tables.
Better yet, roulette is a straightforward game to learn while still allowing you to develop intricate strategies to perfect the way you play truly.
Getting started with roulette is simple. All you need is to learn how the game works and some of the roulette wheel and table layout basics.
Here we give you a run-through of these roulette basics, so you’ll be able to play online roulette, live dealer games, or at the roulette table of your nearest casino.
Step 1 – Place Your Bets
The first step of the game is selecting the bet(s) that you want to play. Do this by selecting the chips that equate to your bet and placing them on the bets or numbers you wish. If you are playing online, this is as easy as just clicking the spots. If you play at a casino, the dealer might move some of your chips to their bets.
Step 2 – The Wheel Spins
The dealer will call no more bets, and the wheel will continue to spin as the ball works its way around, slowly coming to a stop.
Step 3 – Winning Outcome
As the ball stops, it will find its resting place in one of the numbered pockets around the wheel. This outcome will then determine whether you win your bet. The dealer will call the winning number and begin to payout bets.
Step 4 – Continue Playing
The round is complete, and the payouts have been dealt, players are smiling or frowning – now it is time to decide whether you will play again, what bet you’ll opt for, or whether you’ve had enough.
Depending on the variant of roulette that you are playing – the wheel layout will be slightly different. It’s nothing too complicated, though:
The numbers on the wheel are not in consecutive order.
On the roulette table, you’ll find a layout of various numbers and colors. These might appear as very confusing at first but don’t worry too much. These numbers and squares are the grid of betting options that you can make.
It’s easier to understand that it appears, especially once you learn the roulette rules.
Unfortunately, it won’t always be the same, though, as the way these layouts are set will differ from game to game. This is primarily a design aspect, though, as the actual contents will likely be the same.
The only true difference you should expect between variants from a gameplay perspective is the zero and double zero spots between American and European variations of the game.
Inside the grid, where all of the numbers are kept, is where you’ll play what is known as the inside bets. Outside of this grid are the more straightforward bets, known as the outside bets. These are your obvious wagers like red or black, odd or even, etc.
Playing roulette is a little like hitting the slots because the game is reliant on luck. Although the engaging aspect of placing the various bets feels like the game features skill – it doesn’t. There is nothing that players can do to use their skill to beat roulette.
Sure, you can use your knowledge of the game to play better odds and leverage strategies to improve your chances of winning, but the bottom line is that the game still relies on luck.
It’s both a wonderful and frustrating curse.
While anyone can play and do well, the losses do come, and they can have you on the wrong side of a bad losing streak. These losses can be detrimental to your mindset and to the enjoyment you experience with roulette. They don’t need to have a lasting effect on you, though, which is why it is important to learn how to deal with roulette losses.
First and foremost, the key to enjoying your roulette gambling is to accept certain aspects that you do not have control over when playing gambling games.
These aspects are some of the reasons we love to play these games!
The first step to accepting these components is truly understanding that you cannot change everything and that no amount of analyzing or spotting of trends or data will help. When it comes to playing roulette, you are at the mercy of lady luck.
If you find yourself on the wrong side of the bet, don’t take it to heart. Instead, take a minute to think about the bets you are placing and whether they are player-friendly. You might find that the bet you have been playing with for the last two hours is not so player-friendly.
If that is the case – can you blame anything but yourself? How are you supposed to win if you are playing a bet, which gives you a lower chance than 6%.
Make changes to your gameplay to be at a distinct disadvantage, like giving a 20-yard headstart in a 40-yard dash.
Just like most other casino games, there are different variations in roulette games. We’ve spoken about this a few times throughout this tips and tricks guide; however, we want to focus on why it is important to understand the roulette variations.
Thankfully in roulette, the variations are a breeze to learn as there isn’t much between them.
There are three total variants, although we have mostly only discussed the first two in this guide. With modern roulette games, you will find the following variations:
American roulette has the extra numbered pocket for the double zero, and you need to be able to identify this variant because it actually has a significantly higher house edge. In this version of the game, you’ll face odds of 5.26%.
The European variant is the traditional game, which features just the single zero. In this variant, players will enjoy a lower edge at just 2.70%. So, you can easily see why it is important to understand the different variations of the game – just these two alone, you might be unintentionally making yourself face almost double the casino’s edge!
Finally, the remaining variation of roulette is known as French roulette. We don’t often include this as a version worth diving into as it is primarily European roulette. The big difference is that the betting layout is set out a little differently and features a couple of small rules.
These French rules are ‘La Partage’ and ‘en prison’, but they are used optionally, so it will depend on where you play.
When starting out playing roulette, we suggest keeping it simple and starting with the more accessible plays. Once you’ve begun to get the hang of the game, you can move on towards the more complicated bets or combine multiple bets into a single strategy.
Especially true for those learning the game or those that get overwhelmed with ease. There are a significant number of options, so when in doubt – keep it simple!
Kick things off with the outside bets; these are for lower payouts but reward players with much higher odds of winning. It’s a great way to grind out a solid bundle of wins with frequent smaller bets for even money or at a 2 to 1 payout.
Later on, once you’ve got it all under control, start to experiment with some of the inside bets, starting with things like line and column bets before moving to the split, street, and corner bets.
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Chapter two of this guide is straightforward, as we look at our top roulette tips and winning tricks. You won’t need to read between the lines, these tips are simple, and we set them out in plain language for you.
It is difficult to hit paydirt and get rich quickly by having a cheeky spin of the roulette wheel. You’ll need to make sure that you are playing properly and making full use of the best odds and gameplay in roulette.
Don’t worry, and it’s not difficult to do this – especially if you follow our Casino Today’s top 10 roulette tips and tricks!
If you are an experienced player or a beginner, never underestimate the effect that roulette game variants can have on your bankroll and odds of winning. This is a critical component for players at online casinos because these sites feature many different roulette games.
You’ll need to consider whether the specific game has any rules or twists that change how the game plays or pays out.
This is outside of whether the game is an American or European version of roulette too. Certain roulette games that feature bonus bets and the like will often have shorter odds or shorter payouts in specific game areas to make up for the bonus.
There are no links between the outcomes of previous roulette wheel spins. So, don’t bother to look at the historical data and devise some sort of strategy which focuses on trends and prior results.
This is a simple trap to fall into but avoid thinking that particular numbers, columns, or rows are due a win and are bound to pop up in the next game. It’s not feasible, and the belief that some numbers are ‘due’ is a gambler’s fallacy.
If you get into these types of behaviors, you’ll find your gambling will become problematic.
It’s the first rule that every player should learn; however, this is becoming more of a problem in modern gambling. Regardless of how often you gamble or how much you gamble with. You should only bet what you can afford to lose.
If you aren’t perfectly happy to throw away the $100 you are about to gamble with, you can’t afford to lose it.
To maintain responsible gambling and save you and your family from unnecessary heartache, never gamble with money that will cause financial stress or harm to those you love. Follow some of the roulette tips and tricks we share in this player guide to manage your money smarter. Never underestimate the value of picking the right bet amounts to suit your bankroll too.
Remember, real winners, know when enough is enough.
Roulette tables can be different from casino to casino worldwide. This is especially true with online roulette games as every game developer has their design skills and creative flair.
To stop you from losing unnecessary bets, you need to know the table layouts and what to look for when locating differences. Understanding this will stop you from playing with a higher than typical house edge, but more importantly – understanding the layout will help you enjoy your roulette gaming experience to the max!
If you are unsure of the type of game or table you are looking at, a great tip focus on finding the zeros. If you only find the single zero, you are off to a good start as the game you are about to play on has the lower edge being a Euro roulette variant.
Everyone loves the feeling of hitting a big win and seeing the money roll in. Unfortunately, this happens way too infrequently to be a strategy worth focusing your efforts on. Instead of playing big risk options and hoping for a large payday – we recommend sticking to the outside bets for a few reasons.
Playing these outside bets allows you to enjoy the game longer, thanks to the lower risk of going bust. Better yet, with outside bets, you’ll also have higher odds of winning, and the smaller payouts mean you will slowly keep scoring small wins to build up your pot.
These even money and 2 to 1 outside bet should be your go-to if you want to enjoy your time playing.
Not all of the bets in roulette games are the same. You need to know what the odds of these bets are but also how much the payouts are. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you already know how much the payouts are because you played this game before.
No rule makes the payouts the same across games. This is one way that casinos increase their edge over players by offering lower payouts on certain bets.
Ensure that you check this information first before playing and use this to decide how you will play and what bets to focus your gameplay around.
What makes the game so enjoyable is the massive amount of bets that can be played. This lets you play harder or easier and allows players to create strategies that revolve around the way they want to play. One of the best roulette tips and tricks is combining different bets to give a greater chance of winning.
If you are playing inside bets, this might involve picking multiple bets that consist of two, three, four, or six numbers. These split-type bets will increase your chances of winning with significantly better payouts than the traditional outside bets offer.
You won’t even need to make multiple bets. It’s totally acceptable to stick with just a single split, street, line, or square bet, i.e., having multiple numbers working for you at once.
Just as you need to consider the right variation of roulette, the same thought needs to go into picking the right table. Yes, this will be applicable more-so to players who don’t play at online casinos – but the same overarching premise applies.
When playing at a land-based casino, don’t jump straight onto the first table that you find. Instead, take a walk and have a look at each roulette table. See the ones that players are crowding around and those that are quiet. Look for the table limits, see whether the table feels ‘hot’ or possibly the vibe from other players because some of them are on a heater or a roll.
A big part of this roulette tip is that you’ll also need to ensure that the table you pick features betting limits suitable to your playstyle and the amount of money you can play with. If you are only holding $100, then it will be silly to play at a table with $20 minimum bets.
You should know that managing your money is a critical aspect of any gambling activity. This is especially true when playing roulette because when playing with the player-friendly bets that we recommend, you have the opportunity to win more frequently but at the same time – a reduced amount given the lower payouts.
We share plenty of habits that can help you manage your bankroll properly in chapter four of this guide.
These smaller wins mean that you won’t have the potential for the rare, much larger payouts that can act as a buffer for your bankroll—making bankroll management more critical than ever.
Remember that playing gambling games like roulette is all about entertainment and enjoying the fun that you can have at the end of the day. It’s important to always play in the right mindset – these means don’t play when you are stressed or tired from a long day of work. If you aren’t feeling complete ‘in it’, then save it for another time.
Consider this aspect when you are already playing too. If you find that you are gazing into the spinning roulette wheel, you will likely not concentrate fully either.
Take a step back and either stop playing for time being or try a different game. Players at a casino consider taking a walk or getting something to eat or drink to wake yourself up.
If you play when you aren’t in the right mindset, you can make costly mistakes
Online casinos have taken off in popularity, and there does not appear to be anything stepping in their way. Chapter three of this guide covers everything you need to know about playing with online casino roulette games and strategies to ensure you enjoy your gaming experience.
Players have taken to online casinos because of the benefits they provide, as well as the flexibility. These sites allow players to enjoy their favorite casino games whenever and wherever they want, thanks to mobile technology advances.
Gone are the days where players would have to screw around with finicky installations and to set up tricky details on their computer. Nowadays, you can jump straight into things from the internet browser of your device.
There are many benefits to playing roulette at these online casinos too, and some of these features include:
Thousands of online casinos welcome players from countries all over the world. Many of these sites offer brilliant bonuses and excellent features to keep you enjoying the online casino experience.
You can play roulette at some of the best casinos, and there is a collection of the leading sites right here at CasinoToday. You’ll also find independent casino reviews of these websites, giving you all the information you need to know to find one that fits your gaming needs.
Better yet, if you are ready to start playing roulette online – we feature the top welcome bonuses, all of which come from reputable and secure online casinos.
You can make the most of your online roulette experience by taking advantage of the amazing online casino bonuses you’ll find.
We feature a plethora of these awesome promotions on our site. Better yet, all the top online casino bonuses that feature roulette games are through reputable casinos. This solves many of the potential problems you might encounter because we do all the hard work and source the best websites’ best bonuses.
Chapter four of this guide is all about giving you the actionable tips needed to start managing your roulette bankroll immediately. These aren’t difficult to implement, and doing so will give you a tremendous amount of value.
We look at why it’s important to manage your money and how you can do so by:
It’s important to manage your bankroll because it is the first defense line when maintaining responsible gambling practices. If you take care of your money and think about it, you can spend more time enjoying your roulette play.
These aren’t stressful tricks or tips on budgeting to squeeze every penny.
Instead, we share with you straightforward ways to manage your bankroll so that you can spend more time enjoying the games you play and less time worrying about winning back losses or finding money to keep going.
Our first roulette tip to managing your bankroll can often be a doozy. Sometimes there are parameters outside of your control, but you should always aim to keep things consistent.
This means trying to work things out to play with the same amount of bankroll every week and stick to the games and bets that you understand properly.
Keeping things consistent will remove much of the worry you have about playing, as you’ll always know that there is another day to play.
One of our favorite methods of keeping your money in line is setting aside your winnings if you’ve had a bit of luck and earned some winnings that take you over the initial amount of money you were holding.
This does set you up for your next session by contributing some or hopefully all of the cash you would need for your typical bankroll.
If you have been really lucky, you might even be able to stash some further money away and put it towards treating your family or paying off pesky bills.
We use an excellent method to reduce the chance of you dipping back into the winnings. However, it really only works when playing at a traditional casino. This trick is called the envelope method, and what it involves is keeping a plain old envelope with you for your winnings.
All you have to do is stash your winnings inside the envelope. This keeps the money separate from your bankroll and makes it harder to go out of your way to tap into it.
There is one crucial rule to follow when gambling for real money, whether it be at online casinos or your nearest land-based casino. There are many rules or best practices, but arguably this is one of the most important.
When you gamble, only ever use money that you can comfortably afford to lose or go without.
This is the best way to ensure that your gambling won’t harm those that rely on you – like your family or loved ones.
When you set yourself up with your bankroll, think about how much you are gambling with and how you or those who depend on you would react or cope without that money.
If the money goes missing and doesn’t stress you or the people who rely on you, then that money is safe to play with. However, if you lose your bankroll and it makes you struggle or causes you to be unable to pay bills or maintain your responsibilities – you can’t afford to gamble with it.
Don’t think that you need a huge bankroll to gamble either, especially true for roulette players. Take advantage of the tips and tricks we share throughout our roulette guides and improve your odds of winning.
It is common for players to have a varying amount of bankroll each session. Even if it isn’t the best practice, it happens. Some weeks you might have to spend some of your bankroll on extra bills for the house – leaving you with less to play your favorite roulette games.
When you find yourself in this situation, ensure that you think about how you are playing and whether the bets that you are making fit within your bankroll.
For example, if you are playing with less money, then you will likely not be able to support your usual habits. Thus, reducing the amount you bet is likely a smart decision.
You won’t get the same longevity with $150 that you typically would playing with $300 at $10 bets. What would last you two hours with ease might only last an hour now.
Although, the best way to fix this is to reduce the amount you bet per game. Instead of placing wagers worth $10 – drop it down to $5, and you will have doubled the longevity without factoring in wins and losses.
Our best tip here – always stay within your lane and never try to keep up with others.
Play roulette in moderation! Especially when you are playing roulette for real money online or at your nearest casino. It can be hard to do so when you are having fun or on a heater, but it’s best to stick to the limits or goals that you set for your gambling experience.
Set limits around certain aspects, such as:
These don’t have to be ridiculously strict and limiting. That wouldn’t be a smart goal and would cause more harm than good as heavily limiting your play would create more anxiousness towards playing more and extending your play.
Instead, be smart about the limits and goals that you set for yourself. Make them simple, measurable, achievable, and timely (S.M.A.R.T).
If you have set a limit on how much of your bankroll you will lose before stopping, make sure that you stick to these guidelines and stop. Know when to walk away.
To be a winner, you need to know when to stop; real winners know when enough is enough. This is often easier said than done, and we understand that, but it is a slippery slope that you don’t want to go down.
Chasing your losses will often have you teetering on this slope, so it is important to know when to stop and have the willpower to stop.
This trick goes hand in hand with setting limits and goals, but it does deserve your fullest respect. It can be tricky to say no, especially when playing roulette games is a pastime you enjoy.
Generally, it won’t be an easy task, but it is a skill that everyone should develop. Using some of the other tips and tricks throughout this chapter will undoubtedly help you develop that willpower.
Here we explore the roulette betting systems and how this particular playing roulette will help you win. These aren’t your traditional tips and tricks; instead, they are systems that are focused on controlling the amounts that you bet and how you do so.
You can even use these methods in most other gambling games too. These systems will work online or offline, so all you need to do is read through chapter five and give it a go!
Below you’ll find three of the most popular roulette betting systems that are widely used by players in casino games:
We won’t cover each of these strategies w significant detail, but we will give you an excellent overview of what they are and how they work. You can find a more detailed breakdown of each betting system in our roulette strategy guide.
The Martingale betting system is mostly considered the most popular roulette betting strategy. You follow it up with a bet worth double when you lose your bet, and when you win, you’ll recap your losses and go back to the starting wager amount.
Following this strategy helps players to keep ahead of their baseline bet. This is possible because when a win is scored, it recovers the losses and puts players a single unit or chip ahead of where they started.
You need to follow certain specifics when playing with Martingale; in particular, it works best when you are making the same bet as you’ll be facing the same odds each time.
Martingale does have its downsides, though. A negative to this system is that if you get unlucky and face a string of losses, you will quickly find yourself at the end of a large bet.
This creates two problems: players don’t have the bankroll to win back their losses due to the high bet amount. The other problem is that you might also hit the table limit for bets and therefore be unable to make the appropriate doubled down a bet to cover your losses on a win.
The Labouchere betting system is a cancellation system that can be detrimental to your gameplay but adds significant structure to how you go about your games. It can be a costly system or a more streamlined way to play.
It works like a sequence or line of numbers, starting with five numbers that are represented by five of your typical betting amount. When you lose, you add the total of your previous bet to your line of numbers. When you win your bet, remove the first and last numbers in the sequence.
The goal is to remove all of the numbers from the sequence – by winning your bets. The amount that you bet each time is the total of the first and last numbers. If you lose, you add that bet amount onto your sequence and so on.
You can find more information about this betting system in our other roulette guides.
The Fibonacci betting system uses the famous mathematical sequence to help players determine how much money they bet on a roulette round. This means that you’ll be working your way back and forth along the sequence of numbers, with the overall goal of reducing your losses and staying in the game longer.
It’s an excellent strategy for players that aim for longevity rather than hitting significant wins.
The numbers in the Fibonacci sequence are the total of the two previous numbers, with the sequence continuing forever.
Find out more about Fibonacci in our roulette player guide.
You’ve made through to the sixth and final chapter of this hot roulette player guide. In this chapter, we look at some of the popular questions often asked by players – both new and experienced.
We put each of these questions to our panel of roulette experts and used their answers to put together a collection of concise responses – easy for you to take on board.
Typically the online roulette games will feature low betting limits, allowing more players the opportunity to play. There are online roulette games that offer higher table limits and high stakes.
While this makes it possible to play roulette online for high stakes, the traditional variants like this won’t be expected. Instead, if you are looking to play high stakes roulette online, you will want to play the live dealer games. These live dealer variants of roulette are precisely the same from a game rules perspective, save for the live-action component of having a real dealer operating your game.
More often than not, you will find that live dealer roulette games will have the highest table limits when playing roulette online.
Unfortunately, there is no possible way to gain an edge in roulette by spotting specific trends or patterns in the winning numbers. Every spin of the roulette wheel will create a unique outcome, meaning there is no link between what happened in the previous rounds with what happens in the future rounds.
Now, it is possible for there to be trends that occur throughout games, but these are merely coincidences and not represent an underlying connection.
For example, looking back through the history of results for a roulette game might show you that 42 of the previous 50 rounds featured an outcome where the number was between 1 and 12.
This equates to 84% of the games played, but it doesn’t mean that the next result will likely be within the first 12 numbers. It’s purely a trending coincidence. The next 42 games might all be outside the first dozen.
So, don’t look for number patterns – play smart bets with fantastic odds.
There is only one place that you can play roulette games for free – reputable online casinos like those that we feature. It is highly improbable that you will come across a casino that lets you play for free – this is one reason that makes playing gambling games like roulette at online casinos so lucrative.
Playing free roulette games, let’s you practice without the risk of losing your real money. We recommend checking out some of the leading gambling websites that we feature. These are reputable online casinos offering excellent games and a secure platform to play on mobile devices and desktop.
It doesn’t matter whether you play online or live roulette games; they both have their advantages. What it comes down to are personal preferences. Playing roulette online is always going to be a great idea. There is plenty of value to be had for gambling fans. Live roulette games are more of a niche preference for players who want the flexibility of online play but miss traditional casinos’ social interactions.
One aspect worth noting is that you will often find live roulette games to have higher table limits if you are looking to play higher stakes.
Susan is a verified gambling support specialist who has helped thousands of problem gamblers get back on their feet through therapy and financial counseling. She’s also worked as a cage manager in four Las Vegas casinos and spent two years in Macau in her 30s, where she became extremely savvy at Sic Bo and other Asian table games. Her knowledge and expertise have and continue to play a priceless part in how we structure our content, particularly when it comes to game guides and casino reviews.
