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Experience the thrill of live roulette from the comfort of your own home! Live dealer roulette offers an immersive gaming experience, with real dealers and authentic wheels spinning in real-time. If you’re ready to dive into the world of online live roulette, let’s get started with a simple guide.
Live roulette is renowned for its realism and is a popular choice among players in live dealer casinos. While the game can seem complex, especially with various strategies and features, mastering the basics is straightforward. In this live roulette tutorial, we’ll walk you through the fundamental rules, perfect for beginners looking to get started. Let’s begin your journey to mastering live roulette!
Basic Rules and How to Play
Playing roulette is not overly difficult, though some new players may find the game overwhelming. To keep things simple and beginner-friendly, we’ll guide you step by step.
Roulette is played using a betting table, a wheel, and a ball. The wheel is divided into 37 equally-sized sections with numbers ranging from 0 to 36. Half of these are red while the other is black, and the zero is green.
The betting table features all the numbers corresponding to the wheel. It also has specific fields with different types of roulette bets. The goal of roulette is for the player to accurately predict which section of the wheel the ball will land on after the dealer spins it.
Playing Roulette at Live Casinos Step-by-Step Guide
- Find a good casino with live dealer roulette tables
- Use the in-game chips to set your stake, then click on the betting table to make your bet. Every bet in roulette covers one or more numbers. You can make multiple bets by clicking on multiple sections of the betting table before confirming your selection.
- You have a limited time to place bets, usually around 15 seconds. After this betting period is over, betting is closed and the dealer rotates the wheel and drops the ball into it.
- The ball will land on one of the 37 pockets. Whichever number marks the pocket is considered the winning numbers. All bets that cover that number win, while all that do not lose.
- Bets are settled, any winnings are paid out, the dealer removes the ball from the wheel and betting is open again.
Note that contrary to some beliefs, roulette is completely based on luck. There is no way to impact the outcome of a round of roulette. All numbers have the same chance of winning in every spin.
If you want to know how to win roulette more, our advice is to manage your money properly. You won’t win more rounds, but bankroll management can help you not lose money as you play.
Roulette Bets and Payouts
There are multiple types of bets in roulette. The main betting options are often divided into Inside and Outside. This merely references their location on the betting table. Inside bets are near the center, while the Outside bets can be found along the edges.
Note that we already have a complete guide to all roulette bets. Be sure to check that out if you want more details. For now, we’ll highlight a few options and why they are useful.
The best bets for roulette beginners are called Even Money bets. essentially, these wagers have a roughly 50% chance of success and double your stake if you win. These include odd/even, red/black, and hi/low. They’re the safest options, which is why they’re good for rookies.
Many players will place a Straight-Up bet, which is a bet on a single number. This is the riskiest bet to place and offers the worst chance of winning, but the payouts are 35:1. There are also street bets, where one will bet on three numbers, offering 11:1 odds.
Other live roulette betting options include orphan bets, call bets, full complete bets, six number bets, and neighbor bets. These are not as common, but they can offer decent rewards at the table or cover large sections of the wheel.
Live Roulette Paytable
Below, you’ll find a full list of all basic bets in roulette. We’ve also included the industry-standard payouts, numbers covered, and the probability of winning. Most complex wagers in roulette are merely different combinations of the basic ones.
Note that the probabilities assume you’re playing European roulette – which you should be doing anyway.
As you can see, the payouts in roulette are inversely proportional to their respective probability of winning. In simple terms, the more likely a wager is to win, the less you’ll get.
| Bet | Numbers Covered | Payout | Probability of Winning |
| Inside Bets | |||
| Straight Up | 1 number | 35:1 | 2.70% |
| Split | 2 numbers | 17:1 | 5.30% |
| Street | 3 numbers | 11:1 | 7.90% |
| Corner | 4 numbers | 8:1 | 10.50% |
| Line | 6 numbers | 5:1 | 15.80% |
| Outside Bets | |||
| Dozen/Column | 12 numbers | 2:1 | 32.40% |
| Red/Black | 18 numbers | 1:1 | 48.60% |
| Even/Odd | 18 numbers | 1:1 | 48.60% |
| Low/High | 18 numbers | 1:1 | 48.60% |
How the House Edge Works in Roulette – Live Roulette RTP
Every casino game ever made has an inherent house advantage. In short, a casino will win in the long run, no matter how you play. That’s simply the nature of gambling.
In simple terms, knowing how to win roulette is all about managing risk vs. reward, as well as your bankroll. To do that, we must understand how RTP works in roulette. Thankfully, it’s a relatively simple matter.
Let’s consider an Even Money bet such as Red for a second. In theory, this bet is pretty much a coin flip. You have a roughly 50% chance of winning and it doubles your money. Statistically speaking, these odds are absolutely fair. The payout is completely proportional to the risk. However, if you were to flip a coin 1,000 times, statistically speaking you would win half and lose half. Neither you nor the casino would win or lose money.
There’s a catch, though. Your chances of winning aren’t 50% – they’re 48.60%. Why? Because of the green Zero. Instead of covering half the possible outcomes, the Red bet covers 48.60% of them because there’s an odd number of pockets. In the long run, this small discrepancy will mean that your bets lose more than they win.
The house edge in European roulette is thus 2.70%. Conversely, live roulette RTP is 97.30% (100% minus the house edge.) The good news is that this advantage affects all bets equally. This means that the house edge is consistent for all roulette bets and they all have the same RTP. As such, there is no “wrong” nor best bet to play in roulette. It’s all about how risky or how safe you want to play it.
However, American roulette has two Zero pockets – 0 and 00. This means that the house advantage is effectively doubled. That’s why American roulette is always strictly worse than European. Your chances of winning are much worse.
