Pros and cons
- The Best Odds: French Roulette has some of the best odds in the casino
- Easy to Play: The rules of roulette are very, very simple.
- Excitement of regular wins: I love spinning slots, but it can be frustrating when you only win once ever 5-10
- No Jackpots: It’s great to win more often, but if you’re interested in taking big swings of huge cash
Roulette is a fantastic game that can provide hours of entertainment without taking a huge chunk out of your bank roll. I especially recommend French Roulette because it has the lowest house edge of all the roulettes you’ll find.
Top Roulette offers:
How to Play
Roulette is generally a very simple game for players to learn and understand. The basic premise is this: there’s a giant wheel with a bunch of small pockets in it (37, in this case) and you are betting on which pocket will end up holding a small white ball thrown into the wheel while it spins. You can bet on individual numbers, or can bet on batches of them.
In French Roulette rules, there’s a green 0, then 13 black numbers and 13 red numbers. You can bet on red or black, odd or even or on manque (1-18) or passe (19-36). You can also wager on the ball landing on the first 12, second 12 or final 12 numbers. Players can make numerous bets on the same spin, and can also use the same bet on adjoining numbers within the table by placing their wager on the line separating them (so, players can wager on 20 and 21 by placing a chip on the line between them, for example).
Here’s what the payouts look like:
- Bet: Payout
- 0: 36 to 1
- Any single number: 36 to 1
- Split (2 adjoining numbers): 35 to 2
- Basket (0, 1 and 2): 34 to 3
- Street (Bet on column of 3 numbers): 34 to 3
- Corner (Bet on 4 adjoining numbers): 33 to 4
- Six line (Bet on row of 6 numbers): 31 to 6
- Row bet: 25 to 12
- Dozen bet: 25 to 12
- Odd/Even: 19 to 18
- Red/Black: 19 to 18
- Manque/Pass: 19 to 18
French Roulette vs Regular Roulette
One key difference here is with the French Roulette wheel. While American roulette wheels usually have a 0 and 00, French and European wheels only have one 0. That improves the players odds on Red/Black or Odd/Even bets slightly.
The difference between French Roulette and European Roulette are two rules: La Partage and En Prison.
La Partage is offered automatically on most French tables. If the ball lands on 0, all even-money bets (Red/Black, Odd/Even and Manque/Pass) are divided by two, with half the wager returned to the player. This cuts the house edge on those bets to a minuscule 1.35.
En Prison is more complicated. When a 0 comes up, the dealer will place a marker on all even-money bets, keeping those bets locked in for the next spin. If the player wins that next spin, he or she gets the bet returned (note: you don’t get to keep any winnings on that). The odds here work out the same as in La Partage in the long run. There’s just an extra layer of gambling to it.
European Roulette already has slightly better odds than its American counterpart, and French Roulette — which is really just a slightly tweaked version of the European game — has even better odds because of La Partage/En Prison. So, if you’re going to play any roulette game online, it behooves you to make it French.
Playing Roulette Online
Like I said, French Roulette has the best odds of any roulette game. But because of that, not all casinos carry the French version. The casinos highlighted in the table above do, though, making them excellent homers for gamblers who like spinning these wheels along with slot reels. Like all my recommended casinos, those sites also have solid welcome bonuses and tons else to do while you’re there. They also all have French Roulette free games so you can practice before playing for real money.
Roulette Tips
My biggest tip to roulette players is to remember that one result does not necessarily influence another. Tables love urging players to play certain numbers because they’re “hot” or “cold.” Just because a 7 hasn’t come in the last 30 spins doesn’t mean it’s “due.” Feel free to mix and match your bets, but don’t get fooled into thinking you can outsmart the system.
My other suggestion is to vary your bets a bit. I almost always place a Red or Black bet on the table, then mix in a few bets on individual numbers. This strategy means I’ll still win roughly 50 percent of the time, but still creates the chance for a bigger payout if I hit my number.