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Page updated on: 13.12.2020

Roulette Guide & Best Roulette Casinos in 2021

Roulette is one of the oldest casino games which are still commonly found at online and land-based casinos all over the world, and it's still one of the most popular games around. Nowadays, Roulette is a classic at online casinos and you can find many variants to play against the computer, or at live tables against real croupiers.

This guide will provide more insight into the game, the history, the bets you can make at the table, strategies, and what's more important, some of the best online casinos with a particularly interesting roulette game selection - online and live!

1. Types of Roulette ↓
2. History of Roulette ↓
3. Roulette Bets ↓
4. Roulette Strategies ↓
5. Live Roulette ↓

Best Online Casinos for Roulette in 2021

Roulette is available at virtually every casino nowadays, but some casinos have a much wider variety than others. Many also offer access to Live Roulette games, which you can play against real dealers. Find the best Roulette casinos here, they are our top picks of websites with a fantastic and large selection of Roulette games, which you can play online and in the live casino.

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Types of Roulette

Over the decades, a few Roulette variants have emerged, and been adapted into online versions. Although the essence of the game is the same in all versions, it's important to note the difference of the games, as they can affect the probability of you winning, as some have a higher house edge than others.


European and French Roulette

The French Roulette is the original form of the game. It uses a table with the numbers from 1 to 36, both equally divided into red and black pockets, and one green field with the number 0.

The house edge of French and European Roulette is 2.7%, which is the result of the single 0 pocket. It's basically the advantage that the casino has over the player, and it means that the player who bets on even chances, for example red or black, will always have a risk of losing the bet, even if they were to bet on red and black simultaneously.

The difference between French and European Roulette is the extra rules in French roulette, La Partage and En Prison, which give the player a slightly better edge. These rules concern a losing bet of the player if the ball lands on the 0. He then has then choice of either getting half the bet back (La Partage), or betting it again (En Prison).

American Roulette

The American Roulette has an additional pocket of the double zero (00), and not just one 0 like the European and French Roulette. Because of this additional field on the table, the house edge increases to 5.26%, as a bet on even chances will be slightly less probable.

History of Roulette

As one of the oldest games, Roulette ↱ has a rather interesting history. Created in France in 18th century, the word itself translated to "little wheel". The game is probably based on Blaise Pascal perpetual motion machine from the 17th century, which is believed to be a form of early roulette. The mechanism of the game is a combination of his invention combined with the Italian game Biribi.

The roulette we know and play today has been played since 1796, where it was first introduced in Paris. However, it took a while before the game was introduced in other countries, and it spread across Europe and the US in the early 19th century. It quickly became the most popular casino game.

In 1843, Louis and Francois Blanc introduced roulette at the Bad Homburg Casino, but when gambling was banned in 1860 they moved to Monte Carlo and established it as a gaming location for the Elite.

It took until the 1970s before Roulette became yet again popular, as casinos and gambling became more regulated in the world. Since then, Roulette has been a classic game available in almost every land-based and online casino.

Roulette bets

The roulette table allows for many different bets to be placed, each with their own probability and return. The types of bets at Roulette are called inside bets and outside bets, depending on their location on the table.

Roulette Bets

Inside bets are placed on the inside of the numbered field, and outside bets are placed on fields surrounding the numbered layout of the table. Outside bets can include multiple numbers like dozens or columns, or the colour red or black.

Most common betting options at the roulette table

Name Bet on numbers Payout
Straight A single number on the table 35 to 1
Split Two adjacent numbers, either horizontally or vertically 17 to 1
Street Three numbers in a horizontal line 11 to 1
Corner/Square Four adjacent numbers 8 to 1
Six Line Two horizontal lines with six numbers 5 to 1
Even chances High/Low: Bet on 1-18 or 19-39
Bet on Red or Black
Bet on Even or Odd number
1 to 1
Dozen Bet on a dozen of numbers: 1-12, 13-24 or 25-36 2 to 1
Column Bet on a vertical row of numbers 2 to 1

These are the most commonly used betting options available at the roulette tables, there are also some others which may or may not include the 0 (zero) or dedicated number combinations.

The Trio includes three numbers, including a 0 (i.e. 0-1-2 or 0-2-3), the First Four includes the first four numbers including the 0 (0-1-2-3) and the Basket bet is available in American Roulette, as it includes the 00 (0-00-1-2-3).

Depending on the table you're playing at, you may also be able to place additional bets on a separate fields, like for example the neighbours of zero bets (Voisins du zéro), Orphelins or Tiers du Cylindre.

These types of bets refer to the layout of numbers on the actual roulette wheel, and they include combinations of neighbouring numbers on the wheel. This is sometimes called the racetrack, as the layout of the betting fields resemble a racing track.

Roulette Bets

Roulette Strategies - Martingales

Over the years, smart people have thought about how to beat the Roulette table, and in the early years, they were even able to do it. Pure mathematics have enabled some to gain an edge over the house, but it didn't take long for casinos to pick up on those strategies and implement policies that made them difficult, if not impossible, to use.

The most famous Roulette strategies are the Martingales, and there a few different types. In its most basic form, when using a Martingale, the players would double the bets with each consecutive loss, and reset it to base bet with every win. This would mean that the losses of the previous bets would be recovered upon winning.

However, in practice this is a very risky strategy, as the bets would quickly get extremely high and impossible to maintain, and many consecutive losses are not unrealistic.

An example: a €1 bet after multiple losses would increase to €2, €4, €8, €16, €32, €64, €128, €256, €512, €1024. This means if you were to loose 10 rounds in a row (which is not unlikely), you'd have spent €2047. If you were to win the last round you'd have a profit €1, like the initial bet was. This risk hardly justifies the means to win €1.

There are different types of Martingales that minimise the risk, but online casinos don't like seeing their players using strategies at their tables in general, and they implemented measures like table limits, to prevent very high bets, and they can ask players to leave the table when they see a strategy being used.

Martingales are based on the assumption that a player has infinite funds to gamble, and that he will win eventually. However, it is a fallacy to assume that probability will have an effect on the outcome of the round. Like for example if there were eight losing rounds in a row, it will be more likely to have a win in the next round. This is a fallacy, as the probability is the same in every round, and it doesn't change with more rounds played.

Nowadays, there are a few people who advocate sure-win strategies for Roulette. However, online casinos will not tolerate any strategic gaming behaviour that would result in tremendous losses for them. Aside from that, using these strategies can make you very poor - very quickly, so anyone who claims that there is a sure-win strategy, will likely have the intention to get you to loose your money by using a risky playing behaviour.

It is not recommended to play Roulette with a Martingale strategy, no matter which Martingale you use.

Low-risk Betting

Low-risk betting is often mentioned in bonus terms and conditions at online casinos. It basically refers to playing Roulette with the lowest risk of losing your money, for example by placing bets only on even chances, like red or black, or placing many bets on the table that cover a large portion on it, which would lower the house edge.

While it's not illegal to play with a lower risk, when you play with bonus money from the casino, they will often have a policy that low-risk betting is not permitted. Bonus funds are free money from the casino, and if they let you play roulette with it, they don't like seeing that you try to fulfil the wagering with low-risk betting. Any winnings derived from low-risk betting will likely be voided by the casino.

Live Roulette

Live Roulette allows you to take a virtual seat at a real table, which is streamed live from a casino or live games studio. One of the largest providers of live games is Evolution Gaming, who stream dozens of tables from multiple studios.

While their selection is varied and doesn't just focus on Roulette, this classic casino game is available in many variants, like Speed Roulette, Auto Roulette, European, American, French, etc. Depending on your preference you can take a seat at your favourite table.

These tables may also be hosted by dealers with different languages, such as German, Swedish or Finnish, which allows you to chat with the dealer in your preferred language. However, for most games the base language is English, but the virtual interface of the game is available in many other languages to make sure you can place your bets and feel confident about what you're doing.

Live casino games cannot be played for free though, so it's important that you are aware of how the game and the bet types work before starting to play for real money. The bets at these tables usually start from €1, so if you're a novice you may want to practice the game first before playing for real money at the live table.

Live Roulette

Practice Roulette for free before playing with real money

To practice, you can use a online roulette game from the casino, which uses a random number generator, as you can also play these games with play money. So, try out different types of roulette, try out or invent your own strategy, and make sure that you understand how the game works.

Some casinos allow you to play games for free without registration, but depending on your country of residence you may have to register a player account first. In any case, there is no obligation to deposit money if you want to play free casino games.


Although they follow the same set of rules, live roulette and online roulette bear some significant differences. Live roulette is played against a real person sitting at and operating a real roulette table. In the live casino you can connect via the internet and see the table streamed live to your computer, tablet or smartphone. The croupier throws the ball and spins the roulette in every round.

On the other hand, playing online roulette is completely automatic. The game outcome is generated by a random number generator and there is no real croupier present. The online games are much faster than their live counterparts, and they are also suitable to practice the game, as you can also play them with play money. The live game will instead provide a more authentic experience, similar to one you may experience at a real land-based casino.

Although European and French roulette tables look almost the same, there is a slight difference in the French game which affects the return to player rate. If a player looses an outside bet in the European version with the result of the 0, the bet is lost and the money gone, but in the French version there is the La Partage rule, which means the player will get half his bet back. Alternatively you can also choose to put your bet En Prison and make the same bet again with it being locked and you would forfeit the win if you loose again.

Most online casinos only offer European roulette versions and not the French, so it may be more difficult to find one.

It's not advised to play American Roulette, as the house edge increases significantly because of the additional 00 (double zero) pocket. This means that your chances of losing are slightly higher than in European or French Roulette which only has one 0 pocket.

There are many live Roulette games available that you can play at live casinos on your desktop or mobile device. Not only are different versions available, like European, French or American, there is also Immersive Roulette, which put a focus on the game-play and a slow and thrilling experience, there is Double Ball Roulette, which is played with two balls and two winnings numbers, Dual Play Roulette, which combines land-based and online roulette, VIP Roulette tables for High Rollers, the Salon Privé for super high rollers, the fast Auto Roulette and Speed Roulette and Lightning Roulette with special multiplier feature for increased wins.

The house edge is the advantage that the casino has over the player. Looking at the even chances, for example red or black, the numbers are divided evenly and provide a 1:1 payout. The green 0 pocket makes all the difference now and determines the house edge. If the game didn't have a green 0, the probability of winning would be 50%, but because of the 0 it's less and drops to 47.3% which makes it more probable that over time players loose more than they win.

The house edge determines and ensures the income for the casino, as a game that would provide a 50:50 chance for a win wouldn't be able to make any money.

The house edge is increased in American Roulette, as it has an additional 00 pocket, which raises the advantage of the casino to 5.26%.

In other games, the house edge if often referred to as Return to Player or RTP, especially in slots.

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