Online roulette strategy won’t teach you how to win at roulette. In fact, anyone who tells you they have a proven system for winning at roulette is simply lying, and we at AceHoyle.com make it our business to only publish valid and true information. After pondering the matter seriously, Albert Einstein, not a man known for empty talk, reputedly said “you cannot beat a roulette table unless you steal money from it”. We have to agree. As explained in detail below, the game is set up in such a way that no matter how you place your bets or what lucky charms you carry in your pockets, there is simply no way around the house edge.

But it’s not all bad news. Though no one can guarantee you a win at the roulette wheel, Ace Hoyle’s online roulette strategy section will point out a few simple steps and measures you can take to improve your chances of winning at roulette by lowering the house edge. It’s not so much a question of how to win at roulette – it’s more a question of how to apply basic roulette strategies to your game, strategies that will improve your odds of winning at roulette.

 

The house always has an edge over the players, and unless casinos evolve into non-profit organizations this fact will never change. But smart players can take active measures to cut the house edge to a minimum.

The house edge is defined as “the average percentage of a single bet a player is expected to lose over time”. For example, let’s examine the "Straight-up" roulette bet. Betting on a singe number pays out 1 to 35. If there were exactly 36 slots on the roulette wheel, the house edge would be 0%, since over time you would expect to win this bet once every 36 spins and get your money back (1/36 odds). You could, for example, place 36 chips on the table – one on each number, and walk away with your money whatever the outcome may be, with no loss or gain.

That’s exactly why casinos added the “zero” slot (or slots). This extra slot turns your odds of winning into 1/37, but the payout remains 1 to 35. So the first and most basic roulette strategy would be to play at a table that cuts the house edge to a minimum. Surprisingly, that’s not too difficult.

 

There are two basic roulette variants: The American and the European. They both pay out the same, but while the European wheel has only one “zero slot”, the American roulette features two “zero slots” – a 00 was added to improve the house odds. Here’s an example of how the 00 slot works to the casino’s advantage: if you place a straight-up bet on an American roulette, your odds of winning are 1/38. A European wheel gives you better winning odds – 1/37. Bearing in mind that both European and American roulette pay out 1 to 35 for this bet, spinning only European wheels is the first obvious step you can take towards winning at roulette. As far as roulette goes, shunning the Americans is considered ‘the mother of all roulette strategies’.

 

Some casinos offer an option called ‘surrender’ that applies to outside bets paying even money (go to our roulette rules section to refresh your memory on outside bets and their payouts). En even-money bet is any bet that pays 1 to 1, doubling your money if you win. In other words, with an even-money bet you stand to win the same amount of money that you stand to loose.

In roulette, even money outside bets can be placed on groups of 18 numbers. These bets are:

The surrender rule goes as follows: if you place an even-money outside bet, and the ball lands on 0 or 00, you only lose half of your bet. This cuts down the house edge considerably.

 

Another rule that will tip the odds to your favor and help you win at roulette is the ‘en prison’ rule. Like the ‘surrender’ it applies only to even-money outside bets. If the ball lands on 0 or 00, you don’t automatically lose your bet, but rather get to ride it for one more spin. The ‘en prison’ freezes your bet for one more round, so your chips stay on the same spot waiting for the next round to determine their destiny.

In order to win at roulette you must exercise any advantage you get, which is why all roulette strategies start with finding the right wheel to play on. Just say no to the American roulette, and find European wheels offering either the ‘en prison’ or the surrender rule. You will drastically improve your odds before the game even starts, thus improving your chances to win at roulette.

Online casinos sometimes tend to hide their European wheels in a remote part of the site, cunningly directing traffic to their American roulette tables. That’s how they get beginners to play with sucker odds. You should apply the same roulette strategies online as you would offline – avoid being redirected to the American wheel.

Other online casinos will only offer American roulette, but will make it up by adding the ‘surrender’ or ‘en prison’ rules. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing - if your forte is even-money outside bets, these odds will beat any European wheel that isn’t offering the two rules. With so many sites and wheels to choose from, a good online roulette strategy would be to look for the roulette wheel that accommodates your betting style to the fullest.