Roulette is difficult to win over time because of the house edge. Personally, I’ve played a lot of roulette over the years, and I’ve lost quite a bit of money. But I don’t lose as much as I used to because I’ve learned how to avoid mistakes and minimize my losses.
Over the years, I’ve identified six reasons why most roulette gamblers are losing. As you learn about these six reasons in this article, you can learn how to eliminate some of your losses.
In the long run, you’re not going to win as a roulette player, but you can win more often and limit your losses when you do lose.
1 – You Play at Tables With Too Many Numbers
Most roulette tables have either 37 or 38 numbers. In fact, if a roulette table doesn’t have 37 or 38 numbers, you can ignore the table. The returns are worse on other tables than on these two tables.
At roulette tables that have 37 or 38 numbers, the amount you win for each bet is the same. In other words, if you bet on red on a table with 37 numbers, you get paid 1 to 1 when you win, and you get the same 1 to 1 on a bet on red on a table with 38 spaces.
All of this simply means that you should stop playing on roulette tables that have 38 numbers. Stick with the tables that only have 37 numbers. In case you don’t know, the tables with 38 numbers have a 00 space.
2 – You Don’t Know the Best Rule
Now, you know that some roulette tables have 37 numbers and other tables have 38 numbers. But what you might not know is that every table with 37 numbers isn’t the same. And this is important because of one special rule that a few tables with 37 numbers use.
The rule is called en prison or in prison. Some roulette tables that use this rule are called French tables, but not all French Roulette tables use this rule. It doesn’t matter what the table is called. All that matters is if the table uses the in prison rule or not.
This rule is a little complicated to understand of you’ve never played at a table using it, but it’s actually pretty simple. Here’s how it works.
You make a bet on one of the bets that pays 1 to 1. If you lose the bet, your bet is placed in prison. This means you don’t win, but you don’t lose yet. The next bet that you make that pays 1 to 1; if you lose, then you lose the money that’s in prison. But if you win, you get the money that’s in prison back.
This cuts the edge for the casino in half for the bets that pay 1 to 1. This is why you should always play on roulette tables that use the in prison or en prison rule.
3 – Your Bet Size Is Too Big
How much should you bet when you play roulette? While many roulette players make wagers at different bet sizes, the answer is simple. I’m going to give you an answer and show you why it’s the only answer.
If you use the advice in the last section and make 1 to 1 wagers on a wheel using in prison, the edge is always 1.35%. The edge is the same no matter how much you bet.
What this means in dollars and cents is that if you bet more, you’re going to lose more. Here are some specific examples using different bet sizes and amounts.
If you bet $10 you lose, on average, 13.5 cents on every spin. If you bet $50 you lose, on average, 67.5 cents on every spin. If you bet $100 you lose, on average, $1.35 on every spin.
And this is cumulative, as the following examples show.
Over the course of an hour, if you bet a total of $500, you lose $6.75 on average. If the total is $2,500, you lose $33.75. And if the total risked is $5,000, you lose $67.50.
All of this shows why you should always bet the minimum amount possible when you play roulette.
4 – You Make More Than One Bet per Spin
If you make more than one bet on every spin when you play roulette, you’re using a system. This might be a system that you found or bought or a system that you’ve developed yourself. You might not even realize that you’re using a system.
Every wager you make is unrelated to other wagers you make. You can see why this is true using a simple example.
If you bet $10 on red and $10 on black on every spin, you win one bet and lose the other 36 out of 37 times on average. But the 1 out of 37 times that the ball lands on 0, you lose both bets. This is a loss of $20 total on 37 spins.
On the other hand if, you bet $10 on red on 37 spins, you win $10 on 18 spins and lose $10 on 19 spins on average. This is a total loss of $10 on 37 spins.
Make a single wager on each spin when you play roulette. When you make two or more wagers on a spin, it increases your losses.
5 – You Play Online and Mobile Roulette
It’s a mistake for most gamblers to play online and mobile roulette. When you read the title for the next section, you might wonder why it’s bad and good to play online.
But once you read this section and the next section, you’re going to know how to avoid the bad of playing online and know how to use online roulette play to your advantage.
The biggest problem with playing mobile and online roulette is that you’re probably playing far too fast. When you play roulette in a land-based casino, you can play somewhere from 50 to 75 spins every hour.
But when you play roulette in a mobile or online casino you can play 500 or more spins every hour.
When you play more spins every hour, you end up betting more money every hour. As you learned earlier, the more you risk when you play roulette, the more you’re going to lose.
6 – You Don’t Play Online and Mobile Roulette
The other side of playing roulette online or in a mobile casino is that you can actually lose less if you follow a couple strict guidelines.
For the second guideline, you control how many spins you take in an hour when you play roulette online or in a mobile casino. This means that you can take the same number of spins, or fewer spins, when you play online and mobile roulette.
Everything you do when you play roulette needs to be considered based on how much you’re risking. This is why online and mobile roulette play can be better than live roulette play, but only if you have the discipline to control your play.
Don’t get trapped by the roulette bonus scam. These bonuses aren’t designed to help you. Instead, they’re designed to get you to risk more. You can use a roulette bonus if you want, but it’s not going to help you win.
In Summary
If you play long enough at the roulette table, you’re going to lose. Nothing you can do is going to change this fact. But you can do a few things to change how much you lose.
The two most important things to know to influence how much you lose when you play roulette are how many numbers the wheel has and the en prison rule.
The size of your wagers directly influences how much you lose and how many wagers you make influences your losses. Finally, you need to know the pros and cons of playing roulette online.