ROULETTE

ROULETTE is a casino game named after the French word meaning little wheel. In the game, players may choose to place bets on either a single number or a range of numbers, the colors red or black, or whether the number is odd or even.
To determine the winning number and color, a croupier spins a wheel in one direction, then spins a ball in the opposite direction around a tilted circular track running around the circumference of the wheel. The ball eventually loses momentum and falls onto the wheel and into one of 37 (in French/European roulette) or 38 (in American roulette) colored and numbered pockets on the wheel.

The Parts of a Roulette Wheel
The main parts of the roulette wheel are shown with definitions below. You need to be aware of them so you understand explanations:

The Diamonds
These are the metal deflectors in various parts of the wheel. Some of the roulette wheel manufacturers call them disruptors, because they disrupt the trajectory of the ball. They also have many other names including pins, slats, deflectors and stops.
One particularly important roulette wheel secret is “dominant diamonds”. This is when the ball hits particular diamonds more often than others. Almost every wheel has dominant diamonds. The most common situation is a wheel with two vertical dominant diamonds.
Roulette wheel manufacturers and casinos make every effort to prevent dominant diamonds from occurring. This is because if the ball is frequently falling at a particular point around the wheel, this is not random behavior, and it assists professional players to know approximately where the ball will fall. Then to get an advantage, the player mostly needs to know the wheel orientation at the time of ball fall. And this is not at all difficult to do.
The Ball Track
This is where the ball rolls. It is typically wood coated with a very tough epoxy plastic. But it is still subject to wear and tear, most notably cracks. Cracks will eventually occur no matter how well-maintained the wheel is. But they occur sooner if the casino does not rotate the wheel. This is because if the ball is always released from the same position, most of the wear occurs at the same point. But even frequent rotation of wheels does not stop dominant diamonds from happening. Even on a flawless ball track, dominant diamonds still occur if the wheel’s table is on a very slight angle. Even just a 1mm height difference is enough to cause a dominant diamond, and it’s very difficult for casino staff to prevent.
A much more durable ball track surface is the Velstone ball track shown below. It has a grainy appearance and is becoming more common in casinos. Instead of cracking like regular epoxy, it tends to gradually wear down but evenly, which greatly enhances the life of the wheel. I have wheels with both the regular and Velstone ball tracks, and in my experience the Velstone ball track lasts twice as long.
The Rotor
This is the inner part of the wheel that revolves with the pockets. It is around 30 kg, and usually they can be interchanged between other wheels of the same design. This particular capability is used by casinos to make roulette wheel bias analysis more difficult for professional teams. This is because the rotor is largely responsible for roulette wheel bias. It is the only moving part on the wheel, and like any machinery, moving parts tend to develop flaws over time. And anything that is not physically perfect is bound to produce less than perfect results. In the case of roulette spin outcomes, and unbalanced or physically imperfect wheel is likely to cause more predictable spins.
The Pockets
These are the areas where the ball comes to rest, and contain all the winning numbers. The designs of the pockets are one of the most frequently changed parts, from a design perspective. The earliest roulette pockets were quite deep, so the ball didn’t bounce much before coming to rest. One problem with this is the spins are too predictable. Generally the deeper the pocket is, the more predictable spins are. But depth of pockets is not the only cause of predictable spins. The pocket separators, which are the pieces of metal between the pockets, can sometimes become loose. This is not easily noticed with the naked eye, but if a pocket separator becomes loose, it can absorb the impact of the roulette ball to a greater degree than other pockets. The inevitable outcome is that one part of the roulette wheel is significantly different to the others, and a wheel bias occurs.

The Base
This is the outer part of the wheel. It is usually wooden with a metal interior. They are extremely tough and even dropping a roulette wheel won’t damage it too much, at least to the point that roulette wheel integrity is affected. A much more sensitive part of the wheel is the ball track, where the slightest scratch can make the difference between weak or strong patterns on a roulette wheel.

European Vs American Wheels

You’d already know there are two types of roulette wheels, and that they have black and red numbers between 0 and 36. You may not know the roulette wheel secret that all numbers add to 666. This is why it’s called the “devil’s wheel”. There is the single zero European wheel, and the double zero on the American wheel. Yes the house edge is higher on the American wheel because of the extra pocket. But to a professional roulette player it makes little difference. This is because they’ll predict the winning number with enough accuracy to make the relatively small house edge irrelevant. For example, see the public demo video on roulette-computers.com website, where an edge of over +120% is achieved. This is around 40 times greater than the casino’s edge of -2.7% on a European wheel. And it’s still over 20 times greater than the house edge on the American 00 wheel.
The difference between 20 and 40 may seem significant, but the reality is a player’s winning don’t depend entirely on their edge. The largest factor that limits a player’s winnings is how much they can win without being detected. Because if they are detected, the casino will do whatever is needed to stop the winning – even if it means banning the player.
The Wheel Vs The Betting Table
The sequence of numbers for each wheel are (in clockwise order):
American wheel: 0, 28, 9, 26, 30, 11, 7, 20, 32, 17, 5, 22, 34, 15, 3, 24, 36, 13, 1, 00, 27, 10, 25, 29, 12, 8, 19, 31, 18, 6, 21, 33, 16, 4, 23, 35, 14, 2
European wheel: 0, 32, 15, 19, 4, 21, 2, 25, 17, 34, 6, 27, 13, 36, 11, 30, 8, 23, 10, 5, 24, 16, 33, 1, 20, 14, 31, 9, 22, 18, 29, 7, 28, 12, 35, 3, 26
There are 37 numbers on the European wheel, which include 18 black numbers, 18 red numbers, and the green zero. The American wheel has 38 numbers, which include 18 red, 18 black, the green zero, and an additional double zero. Besides the different order of numbers, the only difference is the additional green pocket on the American wheel.
It’s no big roulette wheel secret that the betting table is where you place bets. But many players need to understand it has no influence at all on the winning number. But almost every betting system is based around the table.
Variation of Wheel Number Sequences
In very rare cases, the sequence and order of numbers is different. It generally is only the case with custom made wheels, and not normally wheels created by the most popular manufacturers. An example of this exception is shown in the below image, with the single and double 0 pockets side by side. One of the casinos this has been used is Crown Casino in Melbourne Australia. In this case, besides the added 00 pocket, it is the European wheel number sequence.

The only way to beat roulette is by predicting the winning number with enough accuracy to overcome the house edge. That’s it in a nutshell. Winning at roulette has nothing to do with the betting table. I’m not aware of anyone who earns a living playing roulette with a system based on the table layout alone.
Old Vs Modern Roulette Wheel Bias
Most people think roulette wheel bias does not exist today. The fact is every wheel is biased to some degree, although the casino is carefully monitor the results of spins to determine the strength of bias. If a roulette wheel becomes too biased, then it is removed and replaced with another wheel. But the problem for casinos is that proper bias analysis takes often 10,000 or so spins.
The earliest bias analysis players analysed a similar amount of spins to uncover bias. This was extremely time-consuming, but otherwise easy because the player is simply compared the actual results to what they would normally expect if the outcomes were random. But because casinos monitor their own wheels for bias, conditions are quite different from modern players attempting to use the same techniques.
The different approach used by modern bias players involves visual confirmations. Put simply, the player will visually observe roulette wheels for signs of physical defects. Normally the defects are not possible to see with the naked eye, but there are a few roulette wheel secrets that make it possible. These secrets are explained on my free page that explains roulette wheel bias, or you can subscribe to my free course. But one example is you can observe the reflection on the metallic part of the rotor that intersects with the wheelbase. If a particular part of the rotor is lower than another, every revolution you will see a slight reflection flicker. This is something that casinos don’t check for, because it requires careful observation with eyes. And it can uncover a roulette wheel bias before the casino has the chance to collect their required data.
Roulette rules
If you didn’t figure out the object of playing roulette by now, you should probably stay away from the wheel. The purpose is to win as much as possible in each session you play and avoid downswings on the long run, silly. On a more serious note, players are supposed to correctly guess the number on which the ball will land after the spin. There are several types of bets to choose from and each of them has a different payout, with the best paying wagers being also the most unlikely to win.
The rules state that players are supposed to place their bets before the ball starts dropping, but it is possible to wager when the wheel is in motion. The dealer is the one who calls the end of the betting phase, and once the ball stops in its final resting place, the winners are paid and a new round begins. It is the dealer’s duty to clear off all losing bets and lift the marker off the winning number.
In addition to these roulette rules, there are some that have to do more with etiquette, but even though they are unwritten ones, are just as important. For instance, people who are just watching the game are not allowed to sit at the roulette table seats and the dealer will kindly ask them to step aside. Those who play, are supposed to place their bets as quickly as possible, without interfering with their peers, so that everyone can wager before the dealer calls “no more bets.”
Roulette bets and odds
Once the player purchases the chips from the casino’s cashier, he is allowed to bet on any number, group of numbers or betting areas. The only problem is that they have a limited period of time to do so and in land-based casinos, where many people play at the same table, it can get a bit crowded.
The dealer can also help with placing the bets if asked by a player, but he can easily get overwhelmed when receiving many similar requests. By contrast, those who choose to play roulette online won’t have the same problem, as they decide when the wheel starts spinning. The only exception to the rule is provided by online casinos that offer live dealers, as the same rules apply as in brick-and-mortar casinos.
Basically there are two categories of roulette bets, which go by the name of outside and inside bets. The former are more likely to produce a winner as the chances to win are 50-50, while inside bets are riskier but can trigger bigger payouts.

Roulette bets, odds and payouts
Outside Bets
Perhaps the most popular roulette bet of all is the Red or Black wager, which pays even money and allows players to bet on either color. If the player wins he will keep the initial state and receive an equal amount. Odd or Even has the same payout ratio, the only difference being the fact that players bet on old and even numbers. The High or Low is also an even money bet is the one on numbers ranging from 1 to 18 or 19 to 36 and in all these roulette bets, the house extract its edge from the zero slot.
It goes without saying that those who play American roulette that features two zeroes will have to deal with a bigger house edge. By contrast, those who prefer French Roulette, which is a version of European Roulette will have better chances to win, due to the “in prison” rule. Basically, if the ball lands on zero, the player doesn’t lose the wager, instead it is locked in for another spin. If the next wager is a winner, the money will be released, if not it goes to the casino’s coffers.
A slightly different type of outside bets are those that pay 2-1 as the odds of winning are just 33%. The most popular version is on the Dozens, where players are supposed to bet on the first 12 numbers, the second or the third. The same goes for the Columns bet, with players being also expected to bet on 12 numbers, with the only difference being the distribution on the betting grid.
All outside bet are clearly defined on the roulette table with specific places for each bet.

The position of the roulette bets on the table.

Inside Bets
These sorts of wagers are not suitable to risk-averse players, as the odds of winning are reduced, albeit potential profits are boosted. Gamblers will frequently bet on a single number and if they win the payout will be 35 to 1. One thing to keep in mind is that while players are allowed to bet on the zero slot or the double zero, if they play American roulette, the return on investment is 35 to 1 while the odds are 37 to 1.
The second most risky wager is on the split, as players are betting on two numbers and if they make a correct prediction, the initial bet will be increased 17 times. The Street bet is basically a fancy name for a wager that pays 11 to 1, if the player makes the right assumption and the ball lands on one of the three numbers he indicates. To place this wager, players are expected to place the chip on the line that separates outside bets from inside ones.
A corner bet pays 8 to 1 and it is made by placing the chip at the crossroads of four numbers, indicating the player’s intention on betting on all adjacent numbers. The five number wager is rarely used, due to the fact that it applies only to American roulette and  carries a massive house edge of 7.9% while the return on investment is 6 to 1. The odds are much fairer if you choose the double street wager, as you bet on six numbers and the payout is 5 to 1.
Bet                      Payout  Win probability* Win probability**
Red / Black (18 numbers)   1:1        48.65%          47.37%
Even / Odd (18 numbers)    1:1        48.65%          47.37%
Low / High (18 numbers)    1:1        48.65%          47.37%
Dozen (12 numbers)         2:1        32.43%          31.58%
Column (12 numbers)        2:1        32.43%          31.58%
Double Street (6 numbers)  5:1        16.22%          15.79%
First Five (5 numbers)     6:1          -             13.16%
Corner (4 numbers)         8:1        10.81%          10.53%
Street (3 number           11:1       8.11%           7.89%
Split (2 numbers)          17:1       5.41%           5.26%
Straight (single number)   35:1       2.70%           2.63%