One of the most popular casino table games ever devised, roulette has entertained gamblers worldwide since the early 18th century.

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During the game’s slow evolution — spreading from France across Europe and into the New World within 100 years’ time — roulette has taken on a mysterious air among casual players. Wagering on the whims of a spinning wheel is gambling distilled to its very essence, so players who love the game have been left to fill in the proverbial gaps.

Sep 20, 2019  Let’s imagine you’ve bet $1 on the next roulette spin landing on black. The ball finds a red space, however, so your bet is scooped up by the croupier. From here, a Martingale bettor would simply double their next bet to $2 on black, and if it hits, they wind up with a profit of $1 ($2 payout – $1 in previous losses = $1 profit). There are many ways to exploit a series of spins to make money at roulette. Every system ever devised was the work of someone hoping to take advantage of a series of numbers that through chance or wheel bias occurred more often than simple mathematics would predict. The main objective of each roulette system is to make money. However, the house retains the edge on every spin, and every spin is. Thus, the twenty-somethings on “The Buried Life” huddled around a Golden Gate roulette table and slid a tower of chips worth $125,000 on Red. You won’t be betting six-figures, but Golden Gate’s two roulette tables offer a perfectly reasonable $5 – $200 limit on double-zero action. 4 – Boulder Station Casino on the Boulder Highway.

Systems and strategies have emerged in hopes of “solving” roulette, despite the wheel’s status as the ultimate game of chance. Casino operators have parlayed roulette’s popularity into promotional stunts, pledging to accept massive action on record-setting spins.

And a few brave souls have dared to dream, exploiting flaws in the wheel imperceptible to mere mortals before betting the farm on their perceived edge.

Below, you’ll find five of roulette’s best-kept secrets, so read on to brush up on essential expertise every roulette specialist should know. And don’t forget to check out our game guide for roulette.

1 – Progression Betting Systems like the Martingale Are Junk Science

Martingale. D’Alembert. Labouchere. Fibonacci.

No, these aren’t the names of fancy European sports cars. They’re various progression betting systems purporting to give players better odds of winning at roulette.

Perhaps the most famous of all progression betting systems, the Martingale is usually where roulette novices begin their introduction to these pseudo-strategies. When using the Martingale system, bettors are tasked with nothing more difficult than doubling the previous wager after a loss.

This doubling progression continues throughout the duration of a losing streak until a winning play is finally made.

As advocates of this system claim, the Martingale approach ensures that a gambler will always clear a profit when they wind up winning just one bet.

And true enough, mapping out a Martingale betting system does indeed show that the player will wind up in the black when they finally turn a winner.

Let’s imagine you’ve bet $1 on the next roulette spin landing on black. The ball finds a red space, however, so your bet is scooped up by the croupier. From here, a Martingale bettor would simply double their next bet to $2 on black, and if it hits, they wind up with a profit of $1 ($2 payout – $1 in previous losses = $1 profit).

As you can probably tell by now, the Martingale system always produces a $1 profit on the winning wager, even if comes on the heels of a long losing streak. Knowing this, unscrupulous casino game “strategists” use Martingale betting to trick unsuspecting players into believing they can beat the game.

After all, even small profits like a single dollar can add up if you never lose.

The only thing is, Martingale bettors can easily lose everything they bring to the roulette table.

Because you need to double the bet after every successive loss, it only takes a losing streak of a few spins to force the ante much higher than your original bet.

Check out the table below to see how the standard minimum roulette bet of $5 can escalate for Martingale players.

Martingale Bet Requirements on $5 Roulette

Roulette Spins Data

As you can see, it only takes five losing spins in a row for a $5 bettor to need $160 on their sixth spin. If you can stomach the thought of betting $160 to win $1, so be it, but the Martingale’s fatal flaw can be observed after only 11 straight losing spins.

Following your 11th loss in a row, you’d need to bet $10,240 in order to recoup that $1 profit. Unfortunately for Martingale bettors, the highest maximum bet limit accepted on Las Vegas roulette tables tops out at $8,900.

And therein lies the rub.

If you can’t wager enough to cover your previous losses, the Martingale betting progression becomes null and void.

The same goes for the D’Alembert, the Labouchere, the Fibonacci, and all the other progression betting systems out there. Roulette is a game of chance, so no matter how you size your bets, you’ll always be up against the house’s inherent edge.

Betting systems might delay the inevitable, but in the long run, roulette players can’t escape the game’s negative expected value (EV).

2 – Pattern Tracking “Strategies” Are Useless, Too

This should go without saying, but you’d be surprised at just how many roulette players out there believe patterns in previous numbers dictate where the ball will bounce next.

The human brain is hardwired to detect patterns, which suits us just fine while trying to navigate through the natural elements. Pattern-tracking provides people with the basis for scientific discovery, so it’s only natural for gamblers to assume this skill can help them excel at the casino.

This propensity for pattern-tracking is why every roulette table you’ll ever find features a large tower showing off the results of previous spins. As you can see from the tower in the photo below from Planet Hollywood casino, the wheel hit 17-black on the last spin but fell on red numbers (25, 30, 21, 19, 7, and 36) in the six previous spins.

Seeing that six of the last seven spins have hit red, many recreational roulette players will naturally fire their next bet on black based on their belief that things will “balance” out.

Another way of putting this idea is that black is “due” to hit next because red has shown up more often than the nearly 50/50 odds would dictate.

Unfortunately for folks who mistakenly believe in pattern-tracking, this theory has been well-documented for centuries as the “Gambler’s Fallacy.” Simply put, the Gambler’s Fallacy describes the belief that, when an event happens more often than probability suggests, it will happen less often down the road to compensate (and vice versa).

You’ll find hundreds of self-styled roulette experts who espouse pattern-tracking techniques while hawking strategies and systems, but as is the case with progression betting, what sounds too good to be true never is.

3 – The Largest Roulette Bet in Las Vegas History Was Filmed for an MTV Reality Show

Las Vegas is known as the land of gambling legends, with characters like Nick “The Greek” Dandalos and Archie Karas coming to Sin City and minting themselves millionaires in short order.

And that’s exactly what the cast of MTV’s reality show “The Buried Life” tried to do on October 11, 2010. The show — which revolved around the idea of four young men scratching adventures off their collective “bucket list” — arrived in Downtown Las Vegas to make gambling history at the Golden Gate Casino.

If successful, the foursome would turn $125,000 into $1 million on three straight successful even-money roulette spins.

Here’s how Derek Stevens, owner of the Golden Gate Casino, described MTV’s bold roulette gambit:

“I was surprised because I thought that one of the MGM properties or the Palms or Hard Rock would have done it. Because we’re a small place, no one thought we’d be interested but I jumped at the opportunity!

I figured we have the oldest [venue] in all of Las Vegas and this would be a great opportunity to publicize our total renovation.

We put the MTV crew up for a few days and eventually we got to the ‘Big Spin.’ The boys were obligated to bet $125,000 on an even money roulette bet and parlay it three times. The Golden Gate was obligated to take the bets as they kept winning.”

Beginning with a $125,000 bet on red, the boys doubled up to $250,000. From there, they decided to switch allegiances to black, and while the six-figure wager wound up losing, they beat the previous record for largest roulette bet in Las Vegas history by $30,000.

4 – You Can Cut the House Edge in Half on “La Partage” Tables

One of the best secrets to know about roulette is the “La Partage” (French for “the divide”) rule.

Certain single-zero European tables apply La Partage to even money bets, paying players back half their wager when the wheel finds the “0” space.

As a result of this rebate, the house edge on French roulette tables using La Partage falls from 2.70% to 1.35%.

You’ll find La Partage gameplay offered at the following casinos.

French La Partage Roulette Tables in Las Vegas

5 – Biased Wheel Experts Have Managed to Beat the House at Its Own Game

This one you just have to see for yourself…

Watch below a documentary on biased wheel detection from the History Channel’s “Breaking Vegas” series.

As a teaser, the Spanish team profiled in the doc turned $2,000 into $1 million by spotting a biased wheel at the Casino Gran Madrid.

Conclusion

For gamblers in the know, there’s nothing quite like the feeling that comes when you play casino games better than the crowd. Insider knowledge and access to certain secrets is what separates the best players from the rest of us.

Now that you’ve learned the five insights listed above, you’ll be ready to play roulette like a true expert.

All it takes is one lucky spin for recreational gamblers to fall in love with roulette.

When you use your spouse’s birthday, your child’s age, or any other talisman to choose a number between 1 and 36 – or even the “0” and “00” spaces if you’re feeling froggy – and the little silver ball skips its way to the perfect resting place, there’s nothing quite like that unmistakable thrill.

And of course, the croupier sliding you a castle of chips equal to 35 to 1 on your wager doesn’t hurt either.

Offering one of the juiciest one-time payouts found in the table game pit, casino roulette games have been a gambling fan favorite for four centuries and counting.

I covered the differences between French, European, and American wheels in another post listing the best places to play roulette on the Vegas Strip.

But in a nutshell, French wheels only have one green “0” space for even money (Red or Black, Odd or Even, Low or High) bettors to dodge. And even if the ball does land on green, those bets get a 50 percent rebate paid back straight to the player. This setup, known as “La Partage” (French for “The Divide”) creates a sweet house edge of only 1.35 percent.

Roulette Spin Results List

Next up are the European wheels, which are nothing more than single-zero games without the La Partage rule in effect. Full losses on a “0” for even money bettors equates to a 2.70 percent house edge.

And finally, the modern American roulette wheel has two green spaces (“0” and “00”) working on behalf of the house. As such, the house edge nearly doubles to 5.26 percent on these tables.

Unfortunately, the topline French wheels that sharp roulette players covet can only be found on The Strip these days. That flips the script, so to speak, from other games like video poker and craps, where the best games are found in “Off-Strip” casinos that cater to Las Vegas locals and gamblers who know the odds.

If you’re looking to play for higher minimum bets ($25 to $100) with the benefit of La Partage rules, head for Las Vegas Boulevard.

Roulette Spins Results

On the other hand, if you simply want to splash around a few low denomination chips – and don’t mind tangling with the double-zero American wheels – heading to the Off-Strip gambling halls scattered throughout Sin City is your best bet.

With that in mind, use the list below to find your way to the five best Off-Strip places to play roulette in all of Las Vegas during your next gambling adventure.

1 – Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino on Fremont Street in the Downtown District

A fixture on Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas since 1946, the Golden Nugget has seen it all.

Real Roulette Spins

Frank Sinatra and the “Rat Pack” played to adoring crowds here during Downtown’s heyday, and gamblers today still consider the old gal to be a true Las Vegas landmark.

As for the roulette tables, the Golden Nugget is home to more of them than any other Off-Strip casino, with eight wheels spinning at all hours of the day and night. Minimum bets for these double-zero wheels stand at $10 per spin, but you can up the ante to $200 per if you’re feeling lucky.

2 – South Point Hotel Casino & Spa on Las Vegas Boulevard (7 Miles from The Strip)

If you head to the Mandalay Bay, the southernmost point on The Strip, then keep going south for seven more miles, you’ll find the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa.

A classic local’s casino, the South Point combines all of the luxuries of The Strip – like swimming pools, spas, concert halls, and even an arena where rodeos and other special events are held – into a massive mega-resort property.

You’ll find five of these $1 double-zero wheels at the South Point too, so there won’t be any waiting to score a table.

3 – Golden Gate Casino Hotel on Fremont Street in the Downtown District

Back in October of 2010, the Golden Gate Casino in Downtown set the stage for a momentous moment in Sin City history.

When the cast of MTV’s reality show “The Buried Life” wanted to scratch winning $1 million off their collective bucket list, they headed to Las Vegas looking for a casino willing to take six-figure action on roulette.

As their reasoning went, after starting with a $125,000 opening wager, it would only take three successful even money spins to collect a $1 million payday.

At first, none of the major casino corporations were willing to book the enormous bet, but Golden Gate owner – and avid gambler himself -Derek Stevens was happy to oblige.

Here’s what Stevens had to say about the gambit in a post published by the Golden Gate’s blog:

“I was surprised because I thought that one of the MGM properties or the Palms or Hard Rock would have done it. Because we’re a small place, no one thought we’d be interested but I jumped at the opportunity!

I figured we have the oldest [venue] in all of Las Vegas and this would be a great opportunity to publicize our total renovation.

We put the MTV crew up for a few days and eventually we got to the ‘Big Spin.’ The boys were obligated to bet $125,000 on an even money roulette bet and parlay it three times. The Golden Gate was obligated to take the bets as they kept winning.”

Thus, the twenty-somethings on “The Buried Life” huddled around a Golden Gate roulette table and slid a tower of chips worth $125,000 on Red.

You won’t be betting six-figures, but Golden Gate’s two roulette tables offer a perfectly reasonable $5 – $200 limit on double-zero action.

4 – Boulder Station Casino on the Boulder Highway

If you’re looking to play roulette for the lowest possible stakes, look no further than Boulder Station.

Roulette players here need only plunk down a shiny quarter to get in the game, making Boulder Station by far the most affordable roulette option in all of Las Vegas – and perhaps even the world.

5 – Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino on Flamingo Rd. West of the Strip

The roulette offerings found at the Rio aren’t really anything special, what with double-zero action at $10 through $1,000 per spin limits.

But as the home of the annual World Series of Poker (WSOP), visitors who hit the Rio between late May and mid-July can rub elbows with poker superstars like Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, and Phil Hellmuth.

Those two will likely confine their action to the tournament area, but don’t be surprised to see six-time WSOP gold bracelet winner – and notorious table game pit player – T.J. Cloutier trying his luck at the low-limit roulette tables.

Conclusion

Success in roulette is largely determined by random variance, and that holds especially true when you’re playing American style double-zero wheels. It’s a shame to see the French and Roulette wheels become exclusive domain of The Strip, but roulette enthusiasts can still have a blast taking on the wheel in any of the five Off-Strip venues listed above.