One of the big differences in the online game are the casino bonuses. They are usually much bigger than land based casinos, but there are usually strings and terms attached to them. If you find a good bonus, you should take advantage of it because it boosts your bankroll considerably and you could even profit from the bonus if you can hold out long enough on the minimum betting requirements.

Another tip here is to make most of your wagers on the bets that have a low house edge. That means a smaller slice of your money doesn’t disappear over the long term since you usually have to play for a while or make big bets in order to finally meet the terms and cut the strings from your bonus so you can withdraw your funds eventually. Essentially, these bonuses are all free money to take advantage of.

As I’ve said many other times, players online should also choose to play on a European or single zero roulette table. This will ensure much better odds on every single bet you make. In fact, the outside bets have a house edge of 2.70% vs the huge 5.6% edge on the American or double zero roulette wheel. You would actually be losing half as much money during the same amount of time according to the mathematical odds.

Probably one of the most important things to do is play the roulette game for free with no money. That way you can practice the games and understand the rules without risk to your money. You can also experiment with all the different systems that can be used online plus learn how to apply winning roulette tips with real money. Most importantly, you can become confident with the different kinds of roulette bets as well. All of this stuff can be done online with almost zero risk.

Just to make the online experience even better, some online casinos have live dealers. That means you can play roulette online with a large number of people all playing against the same dealer over a web cam! That way you can actually see a real roulette wheel and not have to worry about the game being rigged or the computer software not working fairly. Playing at these live tables can be beneficial as well and you may even be able to socialize with people over the internet as well and learn more tips from them as well.

The first thing to realize is just about everyone has had that feeling at one point or another. All the professionals had to start at some point or another and play roulette as the “new guy”. Plus you have to actually play and practice the game to get good at it.

For people who don’t even know how to play roulette, it’s easy to practice by playing online. You don’t even have to bet money either, basically you can visit our flash roulette game and play for free. That way you can practice the game and get comfortable with the rules and strategies in the comfort of your own home and at your own time. You can play by yourself in case you are worried about upsetting people. This is the way to get confident in the rules of the game.

Now if you are nervous do to social pressures in a real casino, the first thing to realize is that everyone at the table probably doesn’t know you. They will be concentrating on the game more than the other players. This will make it much easier for people to approach the table without the feeling that everyone’s attention is on you. After a short time and a few spins, you should be getting used to the game and warmed up enough. It can also help by bringing a friend along as well, especially if they know the game.

If you actually don’t know the game, just let everyone know that you don’t know how to play or ask the dealer. It’s actually the croupier’s (dealer) job to let everyone know what the rules are. You can ask the dealer at any time and they should be friendly with you, at least a good dealer should. If the dealer is rude and doesn’t want to take the time to answer a few quick questions, then you shouldn’t take any time giving them a tip!

Roulette is a social game so everyone is usually friendly and they see new players all the time. It is still good etiquette to not ask way too many questions to the players who are trying to play. A good word of advice is if you plan on asking tons of questions and taking a long time to think, then the best time to approach the table is when it is not as busy and gain experience with just one or two people playing (which is how I did it). Otherwise a great way to learn the game is to watch as a spectator by sitting at the rail. By the way, players do not have to bet on every single spin, they can sit out for a few spins and just watch the game, so you should never have to rush through and risk losing a ton of money.

I was trying out some random betting systems on the roulette table and was having an average night. Then I started hitting a strange streak of losses. I started betting on black, a good odds outside bet. The ball landed on red 5 times in a row. So I started betting more money on black expecting the odds to shift and the ball to eventually land on black. Well, the ball landed on red a 6th time, then a 7th time. I started doubling my bets like the Martingale system in order to recoup my loses, but I kept losing.

Eventually I just decided to bet on red with a lot of money. Unfortunately it landed on black just at this time. So I continued betting on red for three more times and then the ball landed on black three more times! So I decided to switch off and bet on black once more. The ball landed on red! This was over 10 straight losses over alternating my bets over different colors. Eventually I just lost my temper and bet everything on black, and I lost of course…

There are two lessons here to remember. The first and most important one is to not lose your temper. It is easy to become frustrated after losing many times in a row. The second lesson here is to always stick to your system and not stray from it. The correct thing I should have done was to keep betting on black and it would eventually come. Not sticking to the system and becoming frustrated with bad outcomes is a bad combination that happens to many people. If you start getting angry, the best thing to do is walk away to a slot machine or another game for awhile to cool off. Otherwise this leads to aggressiveness and unsound strategy in a game where the odds are always against you. This is actually the number one reason people will lose all of their money in a short time.

Tip 1 – Play with money you can afford to lose. This one has been talked about for ages, but it is very important and helpful. No one likes playing with the stress of losing money they can’t afford and it ruins the whole fun of the game. In the end, this can be way too distracting to play a good game where the odds are always going to be with the house. Basically, you should come to the casino with the mindset that you will expect to lose everything and to just enjoy the recreation and entertainment, which is what gambling is all about.

Tip 2 – Know when to walk away. This is the key to winning at roulette or any other gambling game. Since you will always lose in the long term, then you must leave the game early in the short term when you are ahead. Ideally, you would have made a nice profit. You should be using some kind of benchmark or bankroll management system to gauge when you will walk away.

Tip 3 – Know when to quit. This tip is similar to the one just mentioned, but this one is for people who are on a losing streak. If you are hot, you are hot. If you are not, then  you are not. Some nights are better than others and it just depends on how luck is working for you. If you are having a bad night, you should have some fixed figure or amount of money where you will say “I am ready to quit”. This will prevent you from losing everything at least. This tip works well when you are playing with a lot of money. It all depends on if you plan on losing all of your money from the beginning of the night.

Tip 4 – Take advantage of free services. This includes registering for a comps program or accepting free drinks and food. Not only do you get all these benefits, you also save money which can be used in roulette and keep you playing longer.

Tip 5 – Take advantage of bonuses. Usually this tip applies to online casinos, but sometimes this will be allowed in land based casinos. Make sure you read the terms of the bonus before accepting them. Basically this is all free money that can be used when you deposit money and the conditions for the bonuses are usually very good at land based casinos.

I would say the main one is not to touch the chips on the table unless the dealer tells you to. I actually saw a guy get close to crossing that line at the casino once by trying to add more chips to the bet after the dealer tells him not to. Usually the dealer says “no more bets” and raises his hand at this time after the ball has been thrown into the wheel. It would be full out cheating if the ball lands on a pocket and someone places more bets on their spot after the winning number has been chosen.

Well basically when the guy tried adding more chips to the bet, even when the ball was still spinning, the dealer caught him doing this and had to stop. Basically he stopped the wheel and took the ball out and everyone had to place their bets again. Imagine how embarrassing this would be if the dealer points you out and announces that the spin needs to be canceled. Luckily the guy wasn’t thrown out of the casino, probability because he was new to the game. Basically the dealer gave him a lecture for a few minutes in front of everyone and that was it.

So these etiquette rules really are important to follow and you should check them out before going to a land based casino especially.

Ok, basically if you are betting on red or black, and the ball lands on a green slot, the dealer will give you the option to use the En Prison rule. Now this only applies when you are betting on black or red, and then the ball lands on the single zero or double zero (if your roulette wheel has the 00 slot).

For example, if you bet $100 on black and the wheel lands on a zero, the first option is to surrender half of your bet or lose $50. The other option is to chose to go into prison “En Prison”. If you choose to go in prison, the dealer will place an “En Prison” marker over your bet and you leave your $100 on the table and the dealer spins the wheel once more.

The goal is to not have the ball land on the green zeros or the red slots since your original bet was black. If the ball lands on single or double zero again, you lose the bet. You will also lose the bet if the ball lands on red. If it does not land on any zeros and it lands on black, then you go out of prison and you break even. When using the En Prison rule, you can never win. Basically you lose your entire bet or your break even.

Tip 2 is an important tip deals with betting systems like the Martingale for example. Practice these systems online using a free roulette table like the free flash games we have on this site. That way you can get the system down good and learn how to do them properly. If you use the system wrongly, you will not be able to manage your risk and bankroll as efficiently.

Tip 3 is to always bet on outside bets such as the red/black, odd/even, hi/lo or something with low payout odds. You will win $1 for every $1 but you win more frequently. The house edge is also smaller on these bets so you won’t lose as much in the long run.

Tip 4 is to observe any patterns going on. For instance, some casinos display the numbers and colors that the ball lands on for the previous spins. If you notice a lot of black numbers coming up for example, then you should know that eventually the red ones should come up soon since it is highly unlikely that they will keep coming up. For instance, imagine flipping a coin 20 times and getting heads on every flip. Eventually you will get tails in the long term.

Tip 5 involves watching the numbers that are appearing after each spin. You need to watch closely for a long period of time in order to discover some kind of bias in the roulette wheel, such as a flaw in it’s engineering. Some people can figure this out in their head but most of the time you need a computer to input and save all the numbers. In the old days and still in older casinos with old equipment, there are biased wheels that would let the ball land on certain numbers more frequently than others, usually due to a slight unbalance or the wheel leaning in a certain direction. If you can figure out the bias, even a slight one, you should bet on the biased numbers and you might be able to beat the tiny 2.70% house edge.

The paramount basic strategy though is to not play on an American roulette wheel. Always play on the European wheel, French wheel or anything with only a single zero green slot in it. This automatically improves your odds by a factor of two.

As for betting, the basic bets you should be doing are the ones with low odds like “red or black”, “even or odd”, “high or low”. These are slightly less than flip-of-the-coin 50/50 odds. The reason you should do this is the payout odds are better than the really risky bets like corner bets, row and column bets and single number wagers. In fact, the house edge on a single zero table is 2.70% on outside bets. This is about as good as it gets. In case you were wondering, the house edge is 5.26% on an American roulette table. This means the casino is taking more of your money much quicker. The basic strategy is that you should always make wagers on bets that have a low house edge.

The next basic thing to do play only for a short time. The casino is guaranteed to win in the long run in every casino game. So people usually win if they quit while they are ahead in the short time. For instance, if you are on a hot streak and come out way ahead after 100 spins, the best thing to do is leave because the more you play, the more the odds are against you and eventually your bankroll will evaporate.

As for betting systems like the Martingale, Labouchere, Fibonacci or something else, these are not considered basic strategy and they do not affect the odds of the game or your chances of winning. These are basically different risk management styles or bankroll management to prevent great losses or to keep you in the game longer. Some are even risky and require large bankrolls, so these are dependant on the style of player and size of bankrolls.

Unfortunately, nearly all casinos in the US use American roulette wheels, which have two green slots with a single zero and double zero “0″ and “00″ numbers. It is this double zero that gives you bad luck because the European wheel only has a single zero. If you compare the odds, the house edge on the European roulette is 2.70% vs 5.26% on the American version. The difference is actually 2.56%, which makes the American roulette game a bad game for luck and you will lose your money twice as quick.

Many people reading this are probably saying “yeah, that’s common sense, you’ve said this all over your site”. The problem is there are many people who don’t know the difference between the wheels. People in the United States might just play on the American roulette table just because they are citizens of the country and play due to fanfare of their nationality. Realistically there isn’t much of a difference between the wheels except for that addition of the double zero green slot. There is absolutely no benefits to playing American roulette in terms of odds and chances of winning. Basically this game was invented in 19th century America during the gold rush out west when casinos wanted to get in and make a bigger piece of profit when everyone was rich with pockets full of gold! Nowadays, why play on this wheel where there are others with better odds? This game is almost like a novelty relic of casino games that many people never think about.

So if you think you are having some hard luck when playing roulette, check to make sure that you are not playing this American version of the game. If you find yourself playing on this variety, you can literally improve your odds and give yourself good luck or at least better luck on the European, French or single zero roulette game.