ROULETTE GAMES – AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN ROULETTE: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
Although there are many variants of online Roulette that have been created and released into the intergalactic realms of the internet, American and European Roulette are definitely the most popular. Before you start playing either one of them, it’s definitely important to know the differences between them in regards to rules, strategy and house edge. At CasinoTop10, we've played both and have done our research in order to distinguish the two. Have a look below to find out all about the individual variants.
EUROPEAN ROULETTE
European Roulette takes its roots from France and Germany. This variant of the game has been around for a far longer time than American Roulette and this is perhaps why it’s regarded as the original game. The main thing that draws players to this casino game is predominantly the single zero present in the game. As you probably already know, the green zero pocket on the wheel represents the house edge which is about 2.70% in European Roulette. If there were no zeros on the roulette wheel, it would be a zero-sum game and the players and the house would break even in the long run. As we all know, casinos don't run that sort of business. The roulette that you can enjoy playing at on our Free Casino Games page is European Roulette.
AMERICAN ROULETTE
The American roulette wheel has gone through quite a few transformations before reaching the game we today call American Roulette – a wheel with 36 numbered slots plus two green slots for 0 and 00. In the late 19th century, for instance, the most popular form of roulette had the numbers 1 to 28 plus 0, 00, and a slot with an American eagle. Since this roulette version only paid 27 times the wager for a bet on a single number, the house advantage was huge. About every 10th spin ended up on 0, 00 or the eagle, which resulted in the house raking in all the chips on the table. In consequence, very few players could walk away from the table with a profit in those days. Luckily the players' odds have improved since these early American roulette variations were developed in Louisiana and made their way up the Mississippi. The house still has an edge, of course, but in modern games, it has been reduced significantly.
WHICH OF THE TWO YOU SHOULD PLAY?
In reality, there is only one real difference between the two and that is that the European roulette wheels have one zero pocket, while their American counterpart has two (as aforementioned, one pocket is a single zero pocket whilst the other is inscribed with a double zero figure). Arguably the most important part of a winning online Roulette strategy is probably choosing the right wheel to play on before you actually start playing your game. The reality is a simple one, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to play American roulette unless you’re feeling unnecessarily patriotic and don’t mind losing lots of extra money for nothing.
The sad reality is that the only thing that the double zero pocket does is just decrease your odds of winning substantially and since both games are easily available online why would you choose anything except the option that gives you the best odds of making a tidy sum? In addition to this, European roulette also offers other advantages such as the “En Prison” rule which comes into play when a player places an even-money bet with the ball landing on zero. When this bet is made, the player's money bet is “imprisoned” till the next turn and if the player’s original bet wins on the next spin, then the player will win his chips back! Unfortunately, although this rule is customary to the play of European roulette, it is not usually available to players of American roulette.
CASINO ROULETTE RULES
Playing online Roulette is essentially as easy as ABC. The colors used in the ubiquitous roulette wheel are black and red for both American and European Roulette, with the exception of a single green pocket numbered with a zero which is present in the European roulette wheel. American roulette, however, has both this green zero pocket, as well as a double zero pocket which is also green in color. The video and points below focus on explaining how to play American Roulette. However, European online Roulette is also played in more or less the same way with very few differences in rules.
PLACE YOUR BETS ON ROULETTE TABLE
The first thing you’ll need to do whilst playing online Roulette is to decide where you’d like to place your bets. The Roulette table is marked with all the numbers and their corresponding colors on the Roulette wheel. The wheel itself is composed of pockets which range from zero or double zero to thirty-six and one is at liberty to place bets on single numbers, groups of numbers, individual colors, even or odd, red or black and even cover the whole table with bets. For a full explanation on how to bet in Roulette, we urge you to have a look at our how to play Roulette page.
PRESS 'SPIN' TO GIVE THE DEALER THE GO AHEAD
Once you’ve managed to decide how to place your bets, all you have to do then is go ahead and press ‘Spin’. As soon as you’ve done this, the virtual dealer will spin the hypnotic Roulette wheel.
WAIT FOR THE OUTCOME
The next step is to simply wait for the outcome. The winner will be paid out according to the pay table. By sticking to the table minimum and placing outside bets only, for example betting on just red or just black for each spin, you will be increasing your chances of winning as this as this type of outside bet pays one to one and covers almost half of the possible combinations (depending on the wheel you’re playing on). Obviously, your chances of winning are greatly decreased if you choose to bet on just one number, but should you in fact land on that specific number then the reward will be substantial.
ONLINE ROULETTE VARIANTS
The online casino revolution has led to heavy competition between online casino software companies to produce more variants of casino games that are typically found at brick-and-mortar casinos. And this is perhaps why you as a player can find many different variants out there! Amongst the ones you’ll be able to find are the following:
FRENCH ROULETTE
This particular variant is frequently associated with Monte Carlo casinos where players can be found crowding around the table. This particular game of chance originated in France and gained huge popularity after the French revolution. Its rules are predominantly the same as European Roulette, however, the game does have a few differences in rules.
MINI ROULETTE
Mini Roulette, which can be found at many of the Playtech Casinos online, is a version of the game which is based on fewer numbers and has a smaller wheel than the average European and American variants of the game. This particular variant which only includes 13 numbers on its wheel (0-12) has a house edge of approximately 7.69% and follows more or less the same rules of European Roulette.
MULTI-BALL ROULETTE
If you’re sick and tired of playing Roulette in its classic form, Multi-ball Roulette provides an exciting new twist on the game! As the name of the game suggests, the game involves more than one ball. In fact, there are versions of this game that use 2, 3 or even as many as 10 balls. The table, as well as the red and black wheel, used throughout the game looks just like that of European Roulette. And due to the fact that the game only has one zero pocket, the house edge 2.7%) is also the same too!
MULTI-WHEEL ROULETTE
Multi-Wheel Roulette is offered by many of the Playtech and Microgaming Casinos found online. As the name implies, this version of online Roulette uses multiple wheels. Provided that you’re familiar to Roulette, you’ll find that the game is pretty easy to understand and play. The objective of the game is fundamentally to predict where the ball will land on the various Roulette wheels present in the game. On playing this variant of the game, you’ll find 8 in the Microgaming version and 6 wheels in the Playtech one.
ROULETTE PRO
Roulette Pro is a game that’s been developed by NetEnt as an alternative to the classic version of Roulette. The wheel is basically like that belonging to American Roulette which has two zero pockets marked 0 and 00 respectively. The only difference is that it’s got some added functionality.
3D ROULETTE
3D roulette is a version of the game by Playtech. Fundamentally, this game isn’t really different from other European Roulette games. It still possesses only one zero and follows the same rules. And the only difference about this game is that it’s in 3D so the graphics are slightly better.
ROULETTE ROYALE
Roulette Royale is a progressive online Roulette game that grants players the opportunity to win a larger payout than they typically would play the regular version of Roulette. The wheel resembles American Roulette and is played similarly to the regular version of the game. The most extraordinary difference in this game, however, is the jackpot side bet. However, the house edge is greater and stands at 7.9%.
PINBALL ROULETTE
An exciting variant of the game to play is Pinball Roulette. This game features a table that’s similar to the European version of online Roulette. However, the remarkable difference in this variant is that there’s no Roulette wheel. Instead, the winning number is chosen using the arcade classic pinball machine! You can find this game at many of the Playtech casinos available on the net.
