If you’ve ever been to Monte Carlo or Las Vegas – you’ll know there is big money in roulette – all these amazing places where built on gambling or more specifically on the ‘house edge’. This is the statistical advantage that every Casino has in every game – in roulette it’s provided by the roulette tables. Mathematics isn’t the most exciting subject for everyone but when you look at what it can achieve it suddenly develops a little more allure.
Las Vegas was built on probability – that is the probability that more gamblers would lose than win. You should look at every gambling game with an eye on the probability – if only to control how you actually gamble. Roulette is never going to be the professional gamblers choice as there are many other games with better odds – if we disregard the possibility of wheel bias or anything untoward – the one thing you need with roulette is luck.
However the choice of which roulette tables you play at makes a huge difference to the amount of luck you need – there are really two main tables you’ll find in most casinos.
European or French Roulette table
The single most important fact about this roulette wheel is the fact that it has a single zero. This is primarily the ‘house edge’ – all your 50/50 bets on red/black or odd/even are biased towards the house because of this number. Originally this didn’t actually exist at all until the first Casino in Monte Carlo thought it didn’t have any real advantage – but that extra number means the Casino will always win overall if the laws of probability are true.
American Roulette Table
In America the French wheel was originally used but casinos then decided that the house advantage wasn’t quite large enough (probably checked the real estate prices in Las Vegas). So they added the extra ’00’ slot which pretty much doubles the house edge. The distribution of the numbers and colors on both wheels are distributed in different ways but both so that there is an equal chance of red/black and odd/even combinations. The advantage of playing on a European table is made even greater by the addition of another rule if it’s being used – ‘La Partage’. This rule means that you only lose 50% of your even money wagers if the ball land on zero – another significant statistical advantage. The difference is simple really – if you have a choice always play on a European table – the house edge is much smaller and you have a much better chance of Lady Luck shining on you.