ROULETTE TIPS

Below we’ve listed a few roulette tips that all you aspiring roulette pros out there can use to improve your roulette odds. As discussed on our roulette strategy page, there’s little you can do to shrink the house edge in roulette. In fact, our first tip is that if you’re serious about winning you should probably choose a different game! Still, if you're committed to becoming a good roulette player, then there are several small ways that you can tweak the way you play to your advantage.

Roulette Tips: Roulette Has a High House Edge

This is just one of those roulette tips that you can’t get around. Roulette has a higher house edge than skill-based games like blackjack and video poker. You can improve your roulette odds slightly by playing European Roulette with the Surrender or En Prison roulette rules, but even then the house edge is more than double that of blackjack.

If you choose to play online roulette, playing at a busier table will mean more excitement with fewer spins per hour, so the house edge will not add up as quickly. At a live casino this strategy will also earn you more credit with the casino's comps program. It may not sound like much, but those comp points can add up fast.

Roulette Tips: Don’t Be Afraid to Stack

There is a common superstition among casual gamblers that if the number you want to bet on is covered in chips it will somehow change the roulette odds or payout by stacking your chips on top of another player's. This is simply untrue. Stacking your chips on top of another player’s won’t change anything. You just have to make sure you know where your chips start and the other guy’s end. No one will try to take your roulette winnings. After all, it’s a pretty gutsy—not to mention stupid—move to steal someone else’s money right in front of casino staff. When you play roulette online, you have even less to worry about when stacking your chips.

Roulette Tips: Beware of Roulette Betting Systems

Our last tip for you is to remind you to be wary of the roulette tips and strategies offered by other sites. Remember that winning roulette is purely luck. Every gambler wants a little extra edge, so many predatory websites have popped up offering secret strategies that will “guarantee” you a win. Don’t follow these schemes, and certainly don’t pay for them. The only way to shift the house edge is to play on a European wheel or a wheel with a Surrender or En Prison rule. There are no surefire roulette betting systems that can truly guarantee winning roulette results. Only with smart betting choices and the right strategy can roulette players find success at the table.

Roulette Tips: If You Must Use a System, Use the Labouchere

One of the safer roulette betting systems is called the “Labouchere” system. Yes, we realize we just advised you to avoid systems, and this one has its faults too, but when used correctly--or even better combined with a smart betting strategy--the Labouchere system is pretty tame. The system is in fact based on sound mathematical principles. When Labouchere first published a description of his system, it worked well enough to break many a wheel. Modern roulette, with its unbiased wheels and table betting limits, throws a big wrench in the Labouchere system.

To effectively ride out the odds with the Labouchere system, your bankroll should be roughly five times the table maximum for outside bets. You should always choose imprisonment over splitting your bet if the ball lands on 0. Also, if you reach the table maximum without winning, count the list as a loss and start over with a new one. It’s true that you will occasionally lose a large sum when you hit the table maximum, but the probability that you will have such an immense losing streak is small and generally Labouchere players win often enough to balance their losses.