Online Roulette

Online Roulette

A true casino classic, roulette has made a smooth – and popular - transition to the online casino platform.

The tried and true Roulette variations - American Roulette and European Roulette – are naturally ubiquitous but dozens of unique variations have sprung up online to capture a whole new roulette audience.

Mini-Roulette, Multi-Wheel Roulette, Multi-Ball Roulette, 3D Roulette … even Pinball Roulette (you read that right) have joined the online roulette pantheon and are, in fact, growing in popularity.

As we’ve mentioned with other games that have likewise made the transition to online format, the perks of playing online roulette are plentiful. They include:

Advantages of Playing Roulette Online:

  • Wider range of table limits
  • New and interesting range of Roulette variants
  • Free and real-money roulette games available 24/7, 365
  • No tips required for croupiers
  • More side bets offered

The graphics for online roulette range from the fairly spectacular (HD quality, slow-motion replays) to the decidedly mundane but neither distracts from the main thrill of watching the roulette wheel spin and the magical silver ball slowly bounce and drop into a slot.

If you love the feeling of live roulette, you won’t feel much of a drop off online. And there’s nothing quite as unique as watching it all happen on your laptop in your pyjamas on a Sunday afternoon.

Online Roulette Free

Online roulette is another of the casino games you can find free virtually anywhere online. Online casinos offer demo versions or “free play” versions of many of their roulette games so you can try them out with no risk to your own bankroll.

Always wanted to bet it all on 33 red and see just how much you can rake in if it hits? Free online roulette is where you can live out those less-than-practical dreams.

But beyond just being a fun diversion to while away some time or actualize a James Bond fantasy, free online roulette can serve a practical purpose, too.

For one it’s a great way to get used to the betting protocols, online software and various betting strategies you can implement before putting any of your own real-money bets on the table.

You can also try out new roulette variations (more on those below) that you might otherwise not take a chance on.

Online Roulette Free No Download

We always recommend downloading the full casino software to get the best overall experience but if you’re just looking for a quick fix or a small sample of what online roulette is like, no download roulette games are a good option and easy to find.

The best online casinos will have a list of all their games offered and below each game should have a link to click for an Instant Play or “Demo” Version.

This will open up directly in your Internet browser and let you play Roulette with play chips. You cant win any real money in these demo games, obviously, but they are a nice virtual tour of the software, betting functionality and gaming platform.

If you like what you see (and play) you can easily convert to real-money play simply by registering an account and funding it any number of ways.

If you do become a real money player it’s definitely best to download the full casino software but you can actually still play no download roulette for real money as well.

Online Roulette Real Money

If you make the leap to real money online roulette you’re in for a thrill as it loses none of its excitement in its online form.

The real “feel” of listening to the clack-clack-clack of the bouncing ball finding a final destination is special, sure. But the online roulette wheel pays out just as profitably – if not more.

If you do lust after that “casino floor” feeling you can also play live roulette games online with a real person spinning a real roulette wheel via live stream. It doesn’t quite capture the exact magic of the live casino, but it’s awfully close.

If having a real croupier isn’t all that important to you, then playing online roulette for real money has a number of advantages:

  • Convenience
  • Game Variety
  • Bonus clearing
  • Reward points
  • Smaller minimum bets

The most obvious reason to take your roulette game online is how convenient it is. Playing roulette live in a casino is fun but the drive, parking, tips, drinks, etc can make a roulette trip a costly one – especially if you don’t get lucky on the wheel.

Even if you live in a city with or near a casino it can’t match the convenience of playing roulette online, where you can log in and pull up 20+ roulette variations at all limits and stakes 24/7. 

Just a small sample of some of the Roulette variations you can find online:

  • Mini Roulette (only numbers up to 12 are used)
  • 3D Roulette
  • 3 Wheel Roulette
  • Multi-Wheel Roulette
  • Age of the Gods Roulette
  • Deal or No Deal Roulette
  • French Roulette
  • NewAR Roulette
  • Pinball Roulette (ball is actually launched into a pinball machine and then falls into a number at the bottom)
  • Card Roulette (spin a wheel with playing cards listed and pick where it’ll land)

Roulette variations like Card Roulette or Pinball Roulette aren’t even physically possible at a live casino. And you would never see that kind of spread of games in a live casino as the overhead and demand would never allow for it.

Likewise, because there is such little overhead, minimum bets can be much smaller in casino games online with some casinos offering as low as 10 cent minimums.

If you’ve read about our Online Casino Bonuses then you’ll know different games have different weighting as far as bonus clearing goes. Roulette is a game that will count towards your bonus. You’ll find a range of bonus weighting online from 20-50% but it’s much higher than Blackjack, for example, which usually only counts for only 5% or so.

Because some of the even money bets in Roulette are so close to 50%, it’s also a good game for racking up rewards points and VIP levels as you play.

Online Roulette USA

If you live in the US you know most states have a live casino (or one nearby) but the situation online is quite different.

3Droulette

Yes, there are some “offshore” online casinos that offer games to American players. But as far as legalized, licensed online casinos those exist in just 4 states – New Jersey, Nevada, Delaware and (soon) Pennsylvania.

If you’re playing on an online casino from another state other than those 4 you’re not “breaking the law” per se but you are putting yourself at risk for “rogue” casinos.

Any online casino that is properly licensed somewhere in the world has withdrawn its games for US players until state-by-state legislation makes it possible for them to offer legal games to US residents.

As of now that’s possible only in those 4 states. That being said, you don’t have to be a resident of those states to be allowed to play; you simply have to be within its state borders.

So if you visit Las Vegas or Atlantic City, for example, you can access all of the state’s online casinos as long as you create a proper account and prove you’re of legal age.

All of the major casinos in those states do have online casino partners where you can play online roulette. You might not get quite the same variation of games as you would on an international online casino site but you will find a few for sure.

As more and more states pass legislation to regulate online gambling, more online roulette options will open up.

Online Roulette American vs. European

American Roulette and European Roulette are the two main Roulette variations you’ll find offered both live and online. What, you might ask, is the difference between them? It’s actually pretty simple.

americanrouletteonline

On a standard European Roulette wheel there are: 

  • 36 numbered black or red slots
  • 1 green slot with a 0

On an American Roulette wheel there are:

  • 36 numbered black or red slots
  • 2 green slots – 0 and 00

What difference does that extra zero slot make? A lot, actually. In simple terms it means your odds of winning any bet are worse on the American Roulette wheel.

In odds terms the house edge for every bet on a European Roulette wheel (inside bets and outside bets) is roughly 2.7%; for American Roulette it’s 5.26%. for every bet (and 7.89% for a 6-line bet).

So if you have a choice between the two, the European Roulette wheel is the better pick every time.

Online Roulette Live Wheel

Much like online blackjack, online roulette with a live wheel is a growing part of the online casino market. As technology has improved, so too have streaming devices and home computers, making the ease of watching a live casino stream (and not having it glitch out or disconnect on you) is higher than ever before.

Seats at the table are limited like a regular live roulette table but each player makes their bets by clicking online. The live croupier then makes the physical bets on the table while any winnings are credited to your online account.

Online roulette with a live wheel does add a nice touch but the game does play a little slower than straight online roulette with an automatic croupier. The Live Roulette games can also be a nice surprise visually with multiple camera angles, HD graphics and slow-motion replays to enhance the game action.

Online Roulette Mobile

The spread and development of mobile technology has opened up almost endless possibilities for the expansion of online casinos games and roulette is no exception.

Playing online roulette on your smart phone or tablet is now commonplace with both free and real-money games available. If you’re a serious online casino player we naturally recommend downloading your favorite online casino’s mobile app for the best experience and security.

Virtually every major online casino now has an app for iPhone, iPad and Android you can bring up on your device and play with ease with little lag or data use. Online encryption is also fully secure so making real-money transactions on the go is very safe.

Mobile users can also navigate to an online casino website and find free play online roulette as well.

A couple of notable differences with online roulette on mobile:

Game variety is drastically reduced. Most online casinos will only have one or two roulette options for mobile, more than likely European. Everything is also done on touch screen for mobile so placing bets and watching the wheel are a little different. 

For maximum functionality the wheel and the betting table will be on different screens so you’ll need to swipe left or right to access them. You can also drag and drop your bets on the betting table, which is a nice feature.

How to Win at Online Roulette

Always bet one particular color? Always bet a column of numbers? Escalate your bets each time you win? The theories about how to optimize your chances of winning at online roulette are numerous but generally speaking fall into 2 types:

  • Progressive betting strategies
  • Non-progressive betting strategies

A progressive betting strategy, like the famed Martingale System or Fibonacci Sequence, tell you to progressively increase your bets as conditions dictate.

In the Martingale system you double your next bet each time you lose – the theory being that when you hit you’ve made back all the money you’ve lost and won a small profit.

The downside, though, is you can quite often lose a lot of bets in a row. That means each subsequent bet is progressively bigger until it’s either too high for you (you don’t have enough money) or the casino (the bet now exceeds the table limit).

The risk is high and the potential profit small, which makes Martingale or similar systems a poor choice for online roulette.

Other progressive betting systems have similar flaws. The “Reverse” systems, where you double your bets when you win instead of lose, are no more effective.

Non-progressive strategies revolve around looking for patterns in wheel spins - eg a consecutive series of numbers in one color hits so you bet the opposite color or you track and bet on numbers that haven’t been hit in a while.

In theory it would seem there is a higher probability for those numbers or colors to hit on future spins but the reality is the outcome of any roulette wheel spin is always entirely random.

So, in short: There is no system you can use to win at online roulette. You can, however: 

  • Make big bets in hopes of winning big
  • Make lots of “outside” bets (eg betting on red or black, odd or even) that give you the best chance to win
  • Prepare yourself to lose money and enjoy the rush of spinning the roulette wheel

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