How to Choose Which Kind of OKBet Casino Roulette to Play
When you sign in to your OKBet online casino account and go to the roulette section, you will probably see at least two options. The most common kinds of roulette are American and European, but you might also find French roulette and a few other types. Aside from these main differences, the only things that might be different are the graphics or how the game is played.
For example, both European and American roulette is available in both “classic” and “regular” versions at my online casino. The table and the wheel had shown on the same screen in the “classic” versions. The table and wheel had shown on two screens in the regular version.
Let’s begin with the American version of casino roulette.
American Roulette
Since Blaise Pascal made the first modern roulette wheel in the 1700s, people have played roulette. At that time, there was only what is now called “American roulette.” The first roulette wheel had thirty-eight spaces with numbers from 0 to 36, plus an extra room for a double zero. The goal is to guess where the white ball will land when the wheel stops moving.
Because there are zero spaces in roulette, the math shows that casinos have an advantage. If there were no zero spaces, there would be an equal chance of winning for both the red/black and odd/even bets. The ones are red, and the zeroes are green. The zeroes don’t count as odd or even. So, instead of having a 50% chance of winning, the player has about a 47% chance of winning.
Even though it might not seem much, this is how the casino makes money. When a player loses, the casino always wins. Each small win for the casino adds up to thousands of dollars after thousands of rounds and thousands of players. It is called the “house edge.” The house edge in American roulette is 5.26 percent. If the first version of roulette was played in France, you might wonder how it became known as “American roulette.”
European Roulette
As I’ve already said, in the 1840s, two French brothers named Francois and Louis Blanc opened a casino in the village of Bad Homburg. There were already other casinos, so they needed a way to stand out and bring in new customers. They took the double zero spot off the roulette wheel to make what we now call European roulette. Once the other European casinos saw how much of a difference it made, almost all of them switched to the single-zero version. It is why it is now called “European roulette.”
So, American roulette and European roulette are the same game, except that American roulette wheels have a double zero space. But remember that the house edge is the mathematical advantage that the casino has to make money over time. The house edge is only 2.7% in European roulette, which is almost half as low as in American roulette.
French Roulette
There’s one more type of roulette that we haven’t talked about yet. French roulette is like European roulette, using a wheel with only one zero. But the table is set up a little differently. This change is because the French version has a few more ways to bet, and they need to make room for them on the table.
La Partage: This is the first way to bet that only works in French roulette. It is called the “half-back rule,” and if the ball lands on zero, the player gets half of their bet back. The half-back rule can only have used with even-money stakes, like the even/odd or red/black bets.
En Prison: Players who lost because the ball landed on “0” can also choose “Prison.” The player can put half the bet in prison instead of returning it. If it wins the next round, they will get to keep all of their money, but they won’t get any extra money. Both bets are up to the player, so some casinos don’t let them happen.
When a casino decides not to offer these chances, there is only one reason for it. They make more money when players have fewer options, especially when they allow players to save their lost bets.
The house edge is the lowest in French roulette, but that’s just a math calculation. It doesn’t happen very often that the exact conditions needed to use the la partage or en prison rule comes up. It happens often enough that it affects how much money the casinos make, but the average player could go their whole life without ever needing these betting options. Online casinos rarely offer French roulette but have a few other games.
Read more: 5 Casino Myths That You Probably Believed at OKBet Play Live Casino
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