Online Roulette Strategies
Few pit games have the buzz that Roulette has. Get hot, and the crowd around your table will grow quickly.
But play too loose, and you’ll eventually lose your shirt. Roulette has a significant house edge – in the end, the casino always comes out ahead. But with a thoughtful, strategic approach, you can go on EPIC short-term runs.
In this ultimate guide, we’ll arm you with strategies that’ll get you there.
Play French or European Roulette – NOT American Roulette
To maximize short-term wins, you’ll need to level the playing field as much as possible. So our biggest tip is this: STOP playing American Roulette.
If you play American Roulette (out of a sense of North American unity, maybe?), you’re giving the house a MASSIVELY unfair advantage.
Here’s why: unlike the French or the European game, American Roulette has an extra slot on the wheel (00). This addition sharply increases the house edge from 2.7% (in European Roulette) to 5.3%.
So if you’re serious about winning, give the American game a hard pass. Instead, play French or European Roulette. In French Roulette games with the “En Prison” rule, the house edge shrinks to 1.3%, giving you the biggest bang for your buck.
Stick to Outside Wagers
When you visit the casino, you aren’t there for the buffet. When you hit the Roulette table, you want to win BIG.
Casinos LOVE players like this. That’s why inside wagers (single numbers, streets, six lines, etc.) have juicy odds attached to them.
But these bets are like a Siren on the rocks: they look great but will wreck your bankroll in record time. To be frank, these bets don’t hit very often. So in most cases, you’ll lose tonnes of money chasing a big payday.
Instead, stick to outside wagers like red/black, even/odd and columns. They might sound less exciting, but they’ll keep you in the game longer.
Choose Variants That Offer More Ways To Win
Competition between online gaming companies is intense. So in response, many have created wildly creative Roulette variants.
Take Evolution Gaming’s Lightning Roulette, for example. In addition to winning the standard way, this variant offers special multipliers for lucky numbers. Hit it, and you could win up to 500x your wager.
There are many other Roulette titles available on the online casinos we recommend. For example, Double Ball Roulette, Multi-Wheel Roulette, and Immersive Roulette allow you to win in innovative ways.
Take Advantage of Roulette Bonuses
Like game providers, online casinos are engaged in intense competition. That’s why virtually every site offers a welcome bonus. But it doesn’t stop there, as the best online casinos provide a series of limited-time and ongoing promos.
Most target slot players, but occasionally, you’ll find Roulette bonuses. For example, on 888 Casino, they have a daily “happy hour.” Every time the ball hits “8”, players making a qualifying wager of €8 will win €8 in bonus cash, no matter what they wagered on. And if “8” hits on a second consecutive spin, all eligible players win €88 in bonus funds!
By taking advantage of offers like that, you’ll further reduce the house’s edge.
Don’t Engage In “Zero Risk Wagering”
We fear losing more than we crave winning – it’s human nature. So if you’re chasing a Roulette bonus, you might be tempted to wager on red AND black (or even AND odd, or any other 1:1 wager).
Smart, right? Well, no – online casinos keep a sharp eye out for “zero-risk” (or minimal-risk) wagering. These sites aren’t in the business of losing money – and that’s what can happen if they allow bonus hunters to make these exploitative bets.
If they catch you using this strategy, your bonus will be voided. And in some cases, they may even close your account. So please don’t do it.
Defective RNGs – Stop Looking For Them
No matter how great your Roulette strategy is, it won’t shield you against the realities of mathematics. However, that hasn’t stopped some players from searching for Roulette variants with “buggy code.”
But computer code isn’t like a real-world Roulette wheel. In casinos, wheel imperfections can create “drop zones” where balls fall more frequently. But online, game developers thoroughly check their code for bugs.
In short, no firm would ever release a title that would lose their client’s money. And even if a flawed Roulette game hit the market, it would be taken down quickly.
So stop looking for a digital El Dorado. In history, only a handful of advantage players have regularly beaten Roulette games – and they were all at land-based casinos.
Stay Disciplined at the Tables
The house has a significant edge over Roulette players. But if you remain disciplined, you can reduce their advantage. And in the short term, you’ll make the most of any luck that comes your way.
But if you make huge wagers (relative to your bankroll), place massively EV- bets regularly, or get tilted easily, you’ll go bust in record time.
Let’s talk about bankroll management first. If you have €200 and are wagering €20 a round, even a mild downswing could wipe you out within minutes. But if you cut your standard wager size to €10, you’ll have 20 bets behind instead of 10.
After that, you need to consider the odds behind each wager. We get it – occasionally, making a spicy inside bet is fun. But these wagers have a much higher house edge. So don’t make those corner bets to chase losses (or to “get rich quick”) – even if you get hot, you’ll fall back to Earth soon enough.
And speaking of chasing losses – always, always keep your emotions in check. No, the croupier doesn’t have a vendetta against you. They’re just tossing a ball onto the Roulette wheel – the only thing governing its final location is cold, hard math.
So if you feel anger or frustration welling within you, walk away from your device and take a breather. Or just log off – the tables will still be there once you’ve cooled off.
Roulette Systems
If you’ve done some Googling about Roulette strategy, you’ve probably stumbled across systems. Systems that some gamers swear by.
However, it bears repeating – Roulette math is airtight. Online casino owners wouldn’t offer this game if it weren’t. No system can “beat” Roulette – the house always wins on a long enough timeline. So always play for entertainment purposes only.
Nonetheless, you may be curious about Roulette systems. Below, we’ll talk about the most popular ones used by gamers.
The Martingale System
The Martingale System is one of the oldest Roulette strategies around. The principle is simple: if you lose, you double your wager until you win again. After that, you return to your standard bet sizing.
This method is incredibly dangerous. If Lady Luck turns against you, you could wipe out your bankroll in just a few rounds. Plus, your table’s max bet can limit the effectiveness of this strategy.
So unless you’re comfortable with suddenly losing your roll, we recommend steering clear of the Martingale System.
The Fibonacci Sequence
The Fibonacci sequence is similar to the Martingale system. Like the Martingale System, you increase your wager after a loss and keep doing it until you win.
But unlike Martingale, Fibonacci doesn’t endorse doubling up on losing wagers. Instead, it prescribes a predetermined wagering pattern: 1-1-2-3-5-8-13…and so on.
As chaotic as it appears, there’s a logic to the sequence. Look closer, and you’ll notice each number is the sum of the preceding two.
This strategy is less volatile than Martingale. And because of this, it can help you avoid an early bust-out. But it still incentivizes chasing losses – therefore, we cannot recommend it.
The Labouchere Strategy
The Labouchere Strategy is another common (if complex) Roulette system. The idea behind it is to make even money wagers following a sequence of numbers.
Let’s use 1-2-3 as an example. When you start, you’d wager the sum of the first and last numbers in your sequence. So that would be 1+3 = €4.
If you win, you cross out the first and last numbers (in this case, 1 and 3). Then, you wager the last remaining number (2=€2). If you win this wager, the sequence ends – if you wish, you can reuse the previous series or create a new sequence.
But if you lose, you add your wager to the end of the sequence. So in our example, you’d go from 1-2-3 to 1-2-3-4 (and on the next round, you’d wager €5).
This system can take a lot of work to learn. And unfortunately, its complexity doesn’t overcome the mathematics of Roulette. So even if you win initially, the casino will profit in the long run.
