5 Mathematical Facts About Roulette You Need to Know

All gambling and casino games have a mathematical base. Some of them are easier to understand than others, but if you can dig down to the base math behind a game, you can easily understand the challenge of winning and how the casinos make money.

Once you understand the 5 mathematical facts about roulette in this article, you can make an informed decision about how often you should play and how much you should bet when you decide to play. You can’t do anything to beat roulette in the long run, and the facts on this page show you why this is true.

1 – Every Bet Has the Same House Edge

The house edge in roulette is determined by the odds and pay outs. The house edge is what dictates your long term results from playing roulette.


In fact, the house edge is a mathematical fact that can tell you exactly how much money you’re going to lose if you make a large number of wagers on the roulette wheel.

The reason why it has to be a large number of wagers is because over a short period of time or low number of spins, there’s a great deal of room for variance. But over a large number of wagers, the variance disappears and the results reach the expected value.

Don’t worry if all of this sounds a bit too mathematical for you. Here’s a simple explanation.

When you know the house edge of a wager, all you have to do is multiply the house edge times the total amount you wager to get how much you can expect to lose. The house edge for roulette wagers is either 5.26% or 2.7%.

If you bet $25 per spin and make 10,000 spins over the course of a year, you can quickly determine exactly how much you’re going to lose. If you play at a wheel with a 2.7% house edge, you’re going to lose $6,750. If you play at a wheel with a 5.26% house edge, you’re going to lose $13,150.

While this is bad news, because it means that no matter what you do you can’t win while playing roulette. But the good news is that all of the bets at a roulette table have the same house edge, so it doesn’t matter what wager you choose.

The difference between the tables that have a house edge of 5.26% and the ones with a 2.7% edge is how many 0 spaces the table has. You can learn more about this in section 3 below.

2 – Always Bet the Minimum Amount

In the first section you learned how every bet you can make playing roulette has the same house edge. In the next section you’re going to learn the difference between single and double 0 roulette wheels. But the important thing to understand in this section is that there’s always a house edge when you gamble on roulette.

You can’t do anything to alter the edge. This means that even if you get lucky playing roulette for a little while, over time you’re going to lose. You simply can’t overcome the mathematical advantage the roulette wheel has.

All of this leads to an important fact. Every time you place a wager on a spin of the roulette wheel you should make the smallest wager possible. In truth, the smallest wager possible is not making a bet at all. If you don’t make a wager you don’t lose any money.

You can play roulette for free at most online casinos, but when you play for free you can’t win any money when you get lucky.

The best option for roulette if you feel like you have to place some money on the line is to play at an online casino that offers low minimum wager limits. Many real money online casinos have roulette minimums as low as $1. And most of these same online casinos offer a deposit bonus, so you can usually double your bankroll before you start playing roulette.

Just don’t expect to ever cash any of your money out. The odds are quite low that you’re ever going to win enough playing roulette to overcome the play through requirements and have enough to collect any winnings.

3 – The Difference Between Single and Double 0 Roulette

Roulette is widely available, with most middle sized and larger casinos offering at least 1 wheel. Roulette wheels almost always have either a single 0 space, or a 0 space and a 00 space. You might occasionally find a different roulette option, but you should avoid any other versions because the house edge is even higher than the 2 main options.

The only difference between a single and double 0 roulette wheel that matters is the house edge. In the first section you learned the house edge on all roulette wagers is either 2.7% or 5.26%.

All of the wagering options on a single 0 roulette wheel have a house edge of 2.7%. All of the wagers except 1 on a double 0 roulette wheel have a house edge of 5.26%.

The only exception on a double 0 roulette wheel is called a basket wager or bet. The basket is a wager on 0, 00, 1, 2, and 3. This wager has a higher house edge.

Here’s the main fact that you need to focus on. If you’re going to play roulette, you need to play on a single 0 wheel. All other options are going to cost you more money.

The house edge is calculated based on the odds of the ball landing on a space you bet on and the pay out. A single 0 heel has 37 slots on the wheel, and a double 0 wheel has 38.

If you bet on even, you have 18 chances to win. This is 18 out of 37 on a single 0 wheel, and 18 out of 38 on a double 0 wheel. The return on a win is 1 to 1.

4 – Biased Wheels Are a Thing of the Past

Not too long ago, it was possible to find roulette wheels that were biased. Either because of a flaw in the way they were made or because of wear, some roulette wheels didn’t return truly random results.

Smart roulette players tracked the results on wheels and were able to find these biased wheels. When a wheel is biased, it lands on a set of number located beside each other on the wheel more often than on other sections.

If you could identify a set of 4 numbers that were more likely to land than other groups, you would just place wagers on these 4 numbers and be able to overcome the house edge.

This would continue working until the casino replaced the biased wheel or forced you to stop playing.

The problem is that there aren’t biased wheels in casinos today. I’m not saying that it’s 100% certain that there’s never going to be a biased roulette wheel again, but the odds are so low that it’s not worth the time to try to find one.

Technology has made it easier for casinos to keep their wheels unbiased, and it’s also easier for them to identify biased wheels and replace them.

5 – No System Will Work

Roulette is a casino game that has spawned many systems over the years. You can still find gambling systems that claim they can help you beat roulette. If you haven’t seen any available, just do a quick search for roulette systems.

The most popular roulette system is the one where you double your bet after losses. This is called the Martingale system.

Most of the roulette systems that I’ve seen look good. Many of them even look like they might actually work. But once you dig into the math that they’re based on, you quickly learn that none of them really work.

No matter how good a roulette system looks or sounds, in the end you’re going to lose exactly how much the house edge says you’re going to lose. Don’t make the mistake of using a roulette system. The best way to play is to stick with a single wager at the table minimum every time you play.

Conclusion

Now that you understand the math that roulette is based on, you can see that it’s not a game you can win. You can’t find a system that can beat the game and the only way to avoid losing money is to simply not risk any money.

Consider playing real money roulette for free if you enjoy the game, or play online and make small wagers if you have to place some real money at risk. Always remember though that you’re going to lose in the long run. The math proves this.