Make no mistake about it – any website, book or guide you come across that claims to hold the secret to making the ‘guaranteed’ fortune playing roulette is playing you for a fool. The simple fact of the matter is that despite so many claims to the contrary, there is absolutely no way of consistently beating the house when it comes to roulette.
Like rolling a dice or picking a card at random, the outcome of each and every spin is 100% random, every single time. As you cannot predict the outcome, you cannot possibly formulate or implement any kind of winning strategy that guarantees positive results. It simply cannot and will not happen.
Instead therefore, it’s far more sensible to draw up and abide by a sensible roulette strategy, which despite not being able to guarantee wins can at least reduce the likelihood of losing too much. Or too often. So rather than reading into the hype, play in accordance with the following common-sense guidelines and you may find yourself having a much better run of things:
1 – Learn the Odds
First of all, if you intend to take roulette in any way seriously, you need to learn the odds. Or in other words, you need to learn exactly how likely or unlikely it is that any given eventuality is going to happen. Which is easy enough to do – simply find yourself a simplified chart online and study it for as long as necessary. It’s impossible to change the odds when it comes to games like these, but you can at least gain a better understanding of the odds and hedge your bets accordingly.
2 – Don’t Fall for Betting Systems
Some gamblers devise their own betting systems and are perfectly happy with them. As such, if you come across a betting system or create one of your own that you are happy with, feel free to use it. However, don’t make the mistake of assuming that any betting system of any kind can and will guarantee success. As already touched upon, there isn’t a betting system in the world that can guarantee positive results, so don’t fall into the trap of believing the opposite.
3 – Online Casinos Never Present Wheel Bias
Imperfections, damage and general wear and tear can potentially lead to roulette wheel bias. That is, certain numbers on the wheel that are more or less likely to be landed on than others. However, this only applies to physical roulette wheels and is extremely rare to come across these days. It absolutely never applies to any kind of virtual roulette, given the way in which everything is controlled by a computerised number generator behind the scenes. So you can ignore any apparent patterns or tendencies – they are purely coincidental.
4 – Try Different Roulette Types
There are various different types of roulette available these days, all of which have their own advantages, disadvantages and general points of appeal. The rules are generally pretty similar, but there are still marked differences between the different types of roulette available. It wouldn’t be accurate to say that any type is specifically better than any other – it’s simply a case of trying them out and seeing which one works best for you.
5 – Use a Cheat Sheet
This is basically a slightly quicker and easier alternative to the first entry to this list. If you don’t have the time or the inclination to learn the full Ins and outs when it comes to roulette odds, you can simply print yourself off a ‘cheat sheet’ and keep it with you while you play. A common and effective strategy when playing virtual roulette, but one you possibly will not get away with if you intend to head out to a real casino.
6 – Avoid Making Presumptions
Contrary to popular belief, there is absolutely no such thing as a hot or cold roulette wheel. Not only this, but it is fundamentally impossible to predict what might happen next on the back of what has taken place so far. Roughly translated, just because you have consistently lost several times in a row by betting on red, this doesn’t mean that the next spin or the one after that is any more likely to land on red. Likewise, winning streaks are purely a matter of coincidence and chance, therefore shouldn’t be read into as a reason to keep going. Once again, you need to remember that the result of every single spin is random and the odds are the same every single time.
7 – Try Live-Dealer Casinos
If it’s online roulette you’ve made the decision to stick with, be sure to check out one of the better live-dealer the casinos currently up and running. It’s not until you have experienced the difference personally that you really get a feel how much more enjoyable and immersive the live-dealer experience can be. You might also find that you are more inclined to take your time and enjoy the experience with live-action roulette, as an alternative to habitually throwing money into a computerised roulette machine.
8 – Don’t Forget the House Edge
One important rule to remember when it comes to every type of casino gaming across the board is that the house always has the edge. It may only be 1% or 2%, but this still essentially means that as time goes by, you are statistically set to lose 1% or 2% of all the money you wager. Of course, it doesn’t always work like this accurately, but the rule is nonetheless simple and important. Sooner or later, the house always wins. Which in turn means that you really need to master the art of knowing how to quit while behind and ahead alike.
9 – Banish Booze
Last but not least, while there’s nothing specifically strategic about playing roulette on a casual level, this doesn’t mean it isn’t possible to make fundamentally terrible decisions. And the more alcohol you happen to have in your system at the time, the more likely you are to make exactly these kinds of decisions. It’s one thing to relax with a glass of wine while enjoying your chosen online casino games – it’s something else entirely to make the mistake of compromising your decision-making abilities. Fall foul of the latter and you stand to come away both disappointed and considerably worse-off financially.