While many casino aficionados enjoy slots, others are keener on spending their wagers on classic table games. With casino classics, you usually have games like blackjack, poker, baccarat, and of course roulette variations. While some prefer card games where they can apply different strategies, other players choose the thrill of spinning the wheel on roulette.
While you can find various roulette strategies online, you should keep in mind that this is a game of chance and you cannot affect the outcome in any way. Even if you use some betting strategies that are supposed to minimise your long-term losses, the house edge of the game means that the casino will always win in the long run.
When some players are betting on roulette at a land-based casino, they might doubt that the casino may be using some tricks to fool players and beat in the majority of the spins. The truth is that the house always has an edge over players and does not need any other tricks to win in the long run.
While it is extremely unusual for brick-and-mortar casinos to use tricks to beat players, they most definitely utilise an array of legal practices to bring your wins to a minimum. While you cannot do anything about these casino methods, you can at least feel prepared the next time you bet on roulette at a casino.
Roulette Wheel Settings that Ensure the House’s Advantage
There are different types of settings or casino practices that ensure the house’s advantage. There are quite a few ways the roulette wheel is set to ensure that the house is guaranteed to win in the long run. What is more, such settings guarantee that there is no way for players to gain an advantage over the house.
All of the wheel setups and the casino practices that we will review are legal and you cannot make any complaints against them. That said, they can give you an idea why you feel cheated so often, with the casino winning so many turns of the roulette wheel.
Randomised Speed of Rotor
You will often notice that many roulette tables at land-based casinos will allow you to make late bets while the roulette wheel is still spinning. The reason why casinos allow late bets is to seemingly speed up the spinning process and win the casino even bigger revenue thanks to the contributions of other players.
It is possible that some players may try to predict the winning number by calculating the spinning speed of the wheel, using a roulette computer. Of course, the casino has surveillance equipment that is used to keep a track of players who may be using some tools to enjoy consistent wins. However, it is possible to have a difficult time noticing such cases every time a roulette robot may be used.
To avoid any mistakes and players taking advantage of the spin speed of the wheel, casinos tend to use random rotor speeds (RRS). The RRS mechanism ensures that once bets are closed, the speed of the wheel spin is changed. By speeding up the rotation of the wheel, the potential winning number changes and roulette computers cannot correctly predict the possible winning digit.
While the RRS eliminates the player’s edge completely only when a roulette computer is used, the change of spin speed is very obvious to other players, especially if they spend several rounds at the same roulette table. That is why many roulette fans may suspect the casino of cheating by changing the speed of wheel spin.
Typically, the RRS is used more on automated roulette wheels as the rotor speed is unnatural from the very beginning. Meanwhile, when a real dealer spins the wheel, rarely will the casino use an RRS as this would still cause the house to lose money in the long run. The optimal solution would be for casinos to use the RRS mechanism only when they suspect professional players of using a roulette computer. However, sudden changes in the speed of the roulette spin will be even more obvious to the rest of the players who may decide to leave the table as they might fear that the casino has tricked them.
Interchangeable Rotors
Often, something simple as a small defect in the rotor or the bowl (the other part of the wheel) may give players an edge over the casino. While physical flaws can appear in both the bowl and rotor of a roulette wheel, biassed results are typically a result of imperfections in the rotor. That said, it is often a mix between a faulty bowl and rotor that may lead to a biassed wheel.
To avoid bias wheels, land-based casinos utilise modern roulette wheels with interchangeable rotors. That means that whenever the casino is suspicious of a biassed wheel, the rotors between different bowls might be swapped. While this solution to the issue may eliminate a bias, it can also make another roulette wheel in the casino extremely biassed.
Another thing worth mentioning is that it is not that easy to discover that a wheel is biassed, with casinos using software to analyse the spins in roulette. However, to determine whether there is some issue with the rotor, the software needs to analyse about a thousand spins. That can give expert players quite the advantage as they might detect a biassed wheel way before the casino software. If you notice that the results of most wheel spins seem biassed, make sure to take advantage of that before the casino changes the rotor.
Roulette Wheels Move to Different Tables
This is yet another method used by the casino to prevent expert players from gaining a bigger advantage over the casino. If a roulette wheel always stays at the same table at the casino, it can be easily analysed by expert players. That is why casino staff tend to move roulette wheels around, with every wheel regularly being placed at different tables at the casino.
Usually, casinos tend to move around the roulette wheels once every month. While the repositioning of roulette wheels has a very small effect on the techniques used for an advantage play, the practice of moving wheels around is a bit more burdensome for players analysing wheels as it takes them time to find the same wheel in the casino.
While brick-and-mortar casinos tend to move wheels around to prevent expert players from collecting data about wheels, this practice is quite burdensome for the casino itself. Each time a wheel is being moved, it needs to be releveled. If the wheel is not levelled correctly, the ball may land in certain sockets more frequently. However, if the casino staff levels the wheel perfectly, it will be free of bias. The irony in this practice is that if a wheel is levelled the right way, it does not matter where the wheel is positioned in the casino.
If a wheel is not levelled perfectly, it tilts slightly to one side, making the chances of the ball landing in certain sockets bigger. However, the difference between the sections on the wheel is rarely big enough to have a major effect on the game. We can conclude that moving roulette wheels around does not prevent players from winning but rather slows them down as they might need to play more sessions until they find the specific wheel they are looking for.
How Speeding Up the Roulette Rotor May Affect the House Edge in Roulette
As already mentioned, one method casinos use to stop players from winning is to speed up the wheel’s rotor. One interesting fact is that casinos in Europe tend to spin roulette wheels much slower than the ones used in US casinos. If you ask professional players which option is better, they will let you know that the slower rotors are much easier to analyse.
When the roulette wheel spins faster, this causes the ball to bounce off way too much, making it difficult to track. The only case where wheels with faster rotors may be more advantageous for players is when the wheel is biassed. Since the ball will bounce off more when the wheel spins faster, it will touch the defects on the wheel more frequently, allowing more cases of biassed results.
Players using ballistic methods will have a difficult time figuring out roulette wheels that spin faster. You may be wondering what is considered a faster wheel spin in roulette. Generally speaking, any spin faster than three seconds per revolution is considered to be using a faster rotor. Moreover, you can detect a faster rotor by taking a simple look at the wheel, as faster spins will have the ball literally fly off the wheel into the rotor section.
To be able to understand how the different speeds of the rotor can affect the edge of a player, you can take a look at the estimations made using roulette computers:
| Correlation Between Rotor Speed and Player’s Edge | |
|---|---|
| Rotor Speed | Player’s Edge |
| 8 seconds per revolution | 17.00% |
| 7 seconds per revolution | 21.00% |
| 6 seconds per revolution | 26.00% |
| 5 seconds per revolution | 35.00% |
| 4 seconds per revolution | 43.00% |
| 3 seconds per revolution | 31.00% |
| 2 seconds per revolution | 18.00% |
| 1 second per revolution | 10.00% |
Additional Measures Taken by Casinos to Prevent Frequent Player Wins
No matter how insignificant the advantage players can gain due to imperfections in the roulette table’s set-up, casinos make sure to eliminate any factor that can tilt the scales in favour of the player. From using special tools to level tables to forbidding some types of bets, casinos take various steps to stop you from winning.
Auto-Levelling of Roulette Wheels
Human error is something natural in any industry, and it is possible that a casino staff may not be able to perfectly level every roulette wheel. However, casinos are not willing to risk giving players a bigger advantage so they tend to use special tools to ensure the proper set-up of roulette wheels.
As already mentioned, an incorrect levelling of the wheel forces the ball to fall more frequently to specific sockets (diamonds). This is known as establishing “dominant diamonds” and it is a common thing, especially with casinos frequently moving roulette wheels around. To avoid biassed wheels due to incorrect levelling, casinos tend to use special self-levelling tools.
The equipment that is used for self-levelling, follows where the ball lands after it falls from the ball track. Then, the tool fixes the tilt of the wheel to ensure that all diamonds are hit evenly. While this may seem like a great solution to the problem, one thing the casino may be missing is that often the dominant diamonds are caused by imperfections in the ball rather than the wheel that has not been properly levelled.
If the issue is in the ball and not in the wheel’s levelling, that means that when the ball hits the rotor at the end of a spin, one side of the rotor will be slightly tilted lower. That indicates that the ball is more likely to land in the diamonds placed on the lowered side. Expert players may quickly spot the numbers where the ball tends to fall on more spins and take advantage of the casino’s mistake. This case is similar to having a biassed wheel but in this case, the wheel will be flawlessly levelled but still give players an advantage.
Not Allowing Late Bets
One way players are trying to gain an edge over the casino when playing roulette is using visual ballistics or roulette computers. To get an advantage over the house by using these techniques, you will need to spot the dominant diamonds of the wheel. These are spotted by collecting data from multiple consecutive spins that will allow you to notice where the ball hits the rotor first and where it usually bounces off.
If the dominant diamonds on a roulette wheel are too obvious, once the ball hits the rotor, you have a general idea of where the ball may fall. Thanks to the option of late bets that some roulette tables allow, you can quickly place your wager while the ball is still spinning and improve your winning chances.
Professional players who are able to spot trends and can quickly make decisions will be able to make use of the late bets option. You may be wondering why casinos would allow such a betting option when it gives players a bigger advantage. The truth is, very few roulette players are able to make use of dominant diamonds and can act quickly enough to make successful late bets.
That said, when dealers notice professional players making a consistent profit by using the late bets option, he/she is supposed to close bets earlier than usual. Dealers tend to continue closing bets earlier and earlier until professional players are no longer able to take advantage of diamond dominance and place late bets. That said, if players are careful enough, they will not be caught in making use of the wheel’s defects, allowing them to enjoy multiple fruitful sessions. Moreover, casinos allow late bets as they can make a much higher profit in the long run even if professional players use this option to their advantage.
Switching Dealers at Roulette Tables
One of the most common practices casinos use to prevent players from winning too frequently is changing the dealers at roulette tables. The longer a dealer is conducting the game at a roulette table, the easier it is for players to analyse their behaviour. Habits like spinning the rotor and releasing the ball at the same speed range are very noticeable when the same dealer is controlling the wheel for a longer period. Such traits of the dealer are known as “dealer signature”, with many professional roulette players taking advantage of such behavioural patterns.
To avoid such techniques being used by players to gain an advantage, casinos often switch the dealers at roulette tables. It is possible to collect enough data and pick a certain dealer you believe will ensure you the highest edge on roulette and wait for him/her to return to the table you play at. However, you might need to lose patience as typically casinos use multiple dealers on their table rotations and it may take quite some time until your favourite dealer returns to the same roulette table.
While this is a common casino practice, the rotation of the dealer does not affect the player’s edge that much. Despite switching dealers, the physics of the wheel will remain the same. Instead of paying too much attention to the dealer’s signature moves, keep in mind that with time, the deceleration rate of the roulette ball will change. Keeping this and other factors into consideration, you can gain a bigger advantage than the edge figuring out the dealer’s signature will give you.
Conclusion
If you enjoy the game of roulette, you should always keep in mind it is a game of chance, with outcomes depending on pure luck. Of course, professional players have discovered ways to make use of different factors and tilt the balance in their favour. However, brick-and-mortar casinos are well aware of the techniques professional roulette players may use to improve their winning chances.
To ensure they always have an edge over players, land-based casinos resort to different techniques and tools that make the game less favourable to players. All of the practices we have covered are legal and very common at most brick-and-mortar casinos. Even though such techniques are applied to prevent players from gaining a bigger edge, professional players can still find a way to spot biassed wheels and take advantage of the situation.
