Playing live dealer roulette gives you an opportunity to get in on the action just like you would in a live casino with a real dealer over HD video feeds.
Roulette is a game with a number of variations, but it’s generally seen as the most popular casino title available that’s not a slot and that does not use cards or dice. It’s a classic table game, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find any online or land-based casino that does not have it available because it’s such a staple of the casino environment. However, the differences between the online and brick-and-mortar differences are substantial, and playing with live dealer games gives you a chance to get the best of what both game environments have to offer.
Single-Zero Live Dealer Roulette Games
One of the first things that people ask when they want to know about the options for live roulette games online is which table format they’ll get. There are two main styles of the game, though there are sub-variations of each available as well. American Roulette is the least favorable of the main ways to play, and it has two green zeroes. However, European Roulette is one of the more favorable options in terms of the house advanage being low, and it only has one zero. This single-zero style is what you will find in virtually every live roulette casino out there, which means you’re getting better chances to win.
Betting Styles and Strategies
Something really interesting about single-zero roulette, whether live or otherwise, is that every bet has the exact same house advantage. It’s not a situation like craps where you can get roped into sucker bets that have a huge house edge. Instead, you can mix and match different bets to get a strategy that matches what you’re looking for in terms of volatility without having to worry about the payout percentage of your wager changing as a whole. There are a ton of different wagers that you can make at these games, and we’re going to break down some of them in the following sections.
The Outside Bets
There are two main parts of the table for roulette games, and they can be broken up into the “inside” and the “outside.” The inside is where the grid of numbers are, and the outside consists of all of the extra bets that do not occur directly on top of the grid of numbers itself. The outside bets for roulette are generally easier to understand for new players, and they almost always have a lower volatility than the inside bets.
Bet Name | Description | Spaces Covered | Payout |
---|---|---|---|
Red or Black | Wins on any red or black number, respectively | 18 | 1:1 |
Even or Odd | Wins on any even or odd number, other than zero, respectively | 18 | 1:1 |
1 to 18 | Wins on any number from 1 to 18, inclusive | 18 | 1:1 |
19 to 36 | Wins on any number from 19 to 36, inclusive | 18 | 1:1 |
First 12 | Wins on any number 1 to 12, inclusive | 12 | 2:1 |
Second 12 | Wins on any number 13 to 24, inclusive | 12 | 2:1 |
Third 12 | Wins on any number 25 to 36, inclusive | 12 | 2:1 |
Column (Marked 2:1) | Wins on any number on the respective column | 12 | 2:1 |
Something you can see here is that all of these bets are just different ways of wagering on 12 or 18 spaces for winning odds of 2:1 or 1:1, respectively. They are among the most popular bets in the game because they offer good chances of winning with a lot volatility, and you can mix-and-match them to create more complicated wagers.
Inside Bets and Advanced Wagers
The grid of numbers in the center of the table is known as the “inside” of the table, and it’s where all of the more advanced wagers happen. It’s also where the bets with the highest payouts, and therefore highest volatility, are located. Many of these bets involve placing your chips on a specific part of the board, whether it’s on a corner or a line instead of directly on a number, so they have a big of a learning curve. Here we are only going to cover a few of the most popular of these bets.
Bet Name | Description | Spaces Covered | Payout |
---|---|---|---|
Straight-Up | This is a wager on a single number | 1 | 35:1 |
Split | This is a wager on two adjacent numbers (horizontally or vertically, not diagonally) | 2 | 17:1 |
Row | This is a wager on three consecutive numbers in a horizontal row (eg: 1-2-3 or 4-5-6) | 3 | 11:1 |
Corner | This is a wager on four numbers that form a square and that come together at one point (eg: 1-2-4-5) | 4 | 8:1 |
Double Row | This is a wager on two adjacent rows of three numbers each (eg: 1-2-3-4-5-6) | 6 | 5:1 |
There are pros and cons to using inside bets. The main advantage is that they have the best individual payouts available in the game. The main disadvantage is that the volatility increases substantially. Keep in mind again, however, that all of these inside bets (along with all of the outside bets) have the exact same house advantage in live dealer roulette games, so you’re free to mix them and match them however you want.
The Differences Between Online and Live Dealer Roulette
- You usually have more options for different styles of roulette when you play in regular online games (American, European, French, English, Mini, etc.)
- You get to chat with other players and your dealer when you play in live games, but you don’t have that ability in regular online games.
- Live dealer roulette play often has better bonuses and promotions available than their regular online counterparts.
- The minimum betting limits are typically higher when playing at the live roulette tables.
Overview
Live roulette tables are among the most popular live dealer casino games that you’ll find anywhere. It’s a really easy game to learn, but there’s enough flexibility that even new players can start out and have a low house advantage on their bets. When you combine this with the social atmosphere, it creates a particularly fun environment for players to celebrate their wins together while chatting it up as they try to go on a long winning streak.