Play the Best Roulette Tables in South Africa
Roulette is the most iconic casino game. It’s a true staple in South African casinos. You have a chance to play roulette in every casino, no matter if it’s in The Palace of the Lost City or online. It’s a game with many layers that can be as casual or exciting as you want. Try it today at one of the top South African online casinos!
What is Roulette?
Roulette is the best-known of all the casino table games. It has been around for centuries, growing into the most widespread casino game. Every casino, be it land-based or online, features roulette, even if it’s only a virtual gaming machine. Roulette is played on a table with 36 numbered slots, one or two zero (0) slots, and slots for various bets. But the protagonist of the game is the wheel, usually set on one side of the table. It has numbered slots for each numbered place on the table.
When you play roulette, you place your bets on the table. The croupier or dealer spins the wheel and launches a ball when every player is ready. As soon as the ball settles, the winning number is decided, and the money is paid out.
Live Roulette
Live roulette is the same as the game of roulette in a land-based casino - except you can play it online. It has the same basic rules and a lot of its charm. It’s the best of both worlds: it comes with the personal touch of a real-life casino game but is as accessible as your average online casino game.
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The Rules of Live Roulette
The rules of live dealer roulette are basically the same as those used in land-based and online casinos. The tables are the same, and so are the payouts. What differs is the setting, the speed of the game, and the side bets.
- Mega Roulette by Pragmatic Play uses an especially large wheel and multipliers of up to 500x
- Lightning Roulette by Evolution Gaming comes with an RNG-powered wheel, side bets, and added Lucky Numbers and Lucky Payouts
- First-Person Roulette by Evolution gives you a birds-eye view of the roulette wheel and bonus payouts
- Double Ball Roulette is like a game of traditional roulette but played with two balls
- Power-Up Roulette by Pragmatic Play comes with up to five PowerUP bonus rounds with multipliers of up to 8000x
Ready to learn the basic rules of roulette? How about a few tips and guides that can help you win more? Then read on to dive into the secrets and intricacies of roulette!
Roulette Glossary
Before you start your first roulette game, there are some terms that you should know, terms that you’ll encounter when playing the game:
- American Roulette - the roulette variant with a 0 and 00 slot on the wheel
- Bankroll - the money you set aside to play roulette
- Black bet - a bet you place on Black
- Chasing losses - betting more after you lose in an attempt to win back the money you lost
- Column bet - a bet placed on a column of 12 numbers
- Corner bet - a bet placed on 4 numbers. Also called a square bet or a quarter bet
- Croupier - is the dealer in a game of roulette (French)
- Dozen bet - a bet placed on the first, second or third dozen numbers
- European Roulette - is the roulette variant with a 0 on the wheel (no 00)
- Even money - a bet that pays 1 to 1, an amount equal to your bet
- Five-number bet - a top-line bet on an American roulette table (0, 00, 1, 2, 3)
- High bet - a bet on high (19 to 36) numbers
- Inside bet - a bet placed on the central section of the table, on numbers
- Low bet - a bet on low (1 to 18) numbers
- Odd bet - a bet on the next winning number being odd
- Outside bets - bets placed on the outer section of the table
- Red bet - a bet you place on Red
- Single-number bet - the same as a straight bet, a bet placed on a single number
- Street bet - a bet on a row of 3 numbers
- Triple bet - the same as a Street bet
Roulette Variants
Roulette has two basic variants: American and European. The difference between the two is not very big but it does influence the game’s house edge.
American Roulette
American roulette has grown out of the original French version of the game. It has 36 numbered slots on the wheel, and the table, and two “zero” slots - single-zero, and double-zero. This roulette variant has a house edge of 5.62%.
European Roulette
The European roulette wheel was originally a marketing ploy to attract gamblers from Paris, the gambling capital of Europe, to spa resorts in Germany. It doesn’t have a double-zero slot, which gives it a house edge of 2.70.
How to Play Roulette
Playing roulette is as simple as it sounds. You have probably seen people play it in movies or on TV. The same rules apply to the game no matter if you play it at a land-based casino or online, in a random number generator-powered version or in a live casino setting.
- You place your bets on the table
- The croupier spins the wheel
- When all bets are placed, the croupier announces “No more bets” - any bet placed after this point is void
- The croupier launches the ball
- After a while, the ball lands in one of the numbered slots:
- If it’s a black or red number, the respective number is a winner
- If it’s a green number (0 or 00), all bets except those placed on zero are lost.
- The croupier announces the winning number. The winning bets are paid, then the game starts again
Roulette Bets
For such simple gameplay, roulette has a surprisingly wide range of bets. Some are safer, others riskier - and more rewarding if you win. Depending on where you place your chips on the roulette table, they are divided between:
Inside Bets
The inside bets are the ones you place on single numbers or groups of numbers. These are the riskier bets in roulette, but they come with the highest reward as well:
- Single-number bets, also called straight bets, pay 35 to 1
- Split bets are placed on two numbers. They pay 17 to 1
- Street bets are placed on rows of 3 numbers and pay 11 to 1
- Corner bets are placed on groups of 4 numbers and pay 8 to 1
- Six line or Double Street bets are placed on two neighbouring rows of 3 numbers, 6 in total, and pay 5 to 1
- The top-line bet is placed on 4 numbers (1, 2, 3, 0) in European roulette and pays 8 to 1 or on 5 numbers (1, 2, 3, 0, 00) in American roulette, and pays 6 to 1
Outside Bets
The outside bets are those you place outside of the number grid. These bets are generally safer than the inside bets (except if you bet on 0 and 00, of course), but they come with lower payouts, too.
- Red / Black bets pay even money (1 to 1)
- Odd / Even bets pay even money (1 to 1)
- 1 to 18 and 18 to 36 bets pay even money (1 to 1)
- Column bets (on the first, second, or third column) pay 2 to 1
- Dozen bets (on the first, second, and third dozen numbers) pay 2 to 1
- 0 and 00 bets pay 35 to 1
Called or Announced Bets
In the traditional French version of the game - and several live dealer roulette variants - announced or called bets are still an option. These are groups of numbers on which you place bets by announcing your intention to the croupier. These bets are combinations of several straight, split, and
- Jeu Zéro (Zero Game) - a bet on the numbers 12, 35, 3, 26, 0, 32, and 15. It consists of:
- A split bet on 0 and 3
- A split bet on 12 and 15
- A split bet on 32 and 35
- A straight bet on 26
- Voisins du zéro (Neighbours of Zero) - a bet on 22-18-29-7-28-12-35-3-26-0-32-15-19-4-21-2-25. It consists of:
- A split bet on 0, 2, and 3
- A split bet on 4 and 7
- A split bet on 12 and 15
- A split bet on 18 and 21
- A split bet on 19 and 22
- A split bet on 32 and 35
- A corner bet on 25, 26, 28 and 29
- Orphelins (Orphans) - a bet on 17, 34, 6, 1, 20, 14, 13, and 9. It consists of:
- A straight bet on 1
- A split bet on 6 and 9
- A split bet on 14 and 17
- A split bet on 17 and 20
- And a split bet on 31 and 34
- Le Tiers du Cylindre (thirds of the wheel)
- Split bets on 5–8, 10–11, 13–16, 23–24, 27–30, and 33–36
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Roulette Betting Systems
People have tried to crack roulette for ages, with little success. Turns out, roulette is a great random number generator that makes it very unpredictable. Every time a gambler “broke the bank” at the roulette table, it turned out that they made use of a bias in the wheel. Out of the many betting systems elaborated over the years, none have stood the test of time.
There are a few betting systems that have survived the centuries. But these, too, have major flaws that make them impractical.
The Martingale System
The Martingale is a betting system in roulette that works - in theory, that is. The system is simple:
- Bet on an option that pays even money (1 to 1).
- Whenever you lose, bet on the same option but double your money. So, if your first bet was R10 on red, and you lose, bet R20 on red. And if you lose again, bet R40, and so on.
- When you win, you’ll get all the money back, plus your original bet - R10 in our example.
Winning big with the Martingale can take forever - but it does work.
But there’s a major flaw in the system: you need a massive bankroll. Let’s stick with the example of an initial bet of R10. A losing streak of 3, 4, or 5 rounds is manageable - your bet grows to R160. But the 8th losing round grows your bet to R1,280, the 9th, to R2,560, and the 10th, to R5120. Given the unpredictable nature of roulette, a longer losing streak can void your bankroll very fast.
On top of that, most casinos, online or otherwise, have implemented betting limits at their roulette tables specifically to discourage players from using the Martingale system.
The Martingale system has an alternative variant called the reverse Martingale or Paroli system where you double your bets whenever you win.
The D’Alembert System
The D’alembert system is similar to the Martingale, with a big difference: instead of doubling your bet after each loss, you increase it by 1 unit. So, your R10 bet becomes an R20 bet after one loss, and R30 after the second, and so on. The downside of this system is that you don’t get your lost money back on a single winning round - you’ll need several wins in a row for that.
The D’Alembert system works most of the time, and it doesn’t require a massive bankroll like the Martingale. But it relies on the premise that your wins and losses even out in the long run, and this is not always the case. When it goes well, you can win a lot of money - and you can lose a lot when it doesn’t.
The D’Alembert has a variant called the Reverse D’Alembert which requires you to increase your bets when you win. Mathematically, they are the same.
The Fibonacci System
This betting strategy is little more than a fun thought experiment based on the golden ratio, or better said the Fibonacci sequence that is related to it.
The Fibonacci sequence is a string of numbers where every number is the sum of the preceding two. For example, if you start with 1, you’ll have 1 (0+1), 2 (1+1), 3 (2+1), 5 (3+2), 8 (5+3), 13 (5+8), and so on. The system requires you to place even money bets - red/black, odd/even, big/small. Each time you lose, you move one spot higher in the sequence, and each time you lose, you move back two spots.
The Fibonacci is a fun strategy where you can win - and even if you lose, your losses won’t get out of hand fast. Still, it’s far from breaking the bank.
Other Betting Strategies
- The Labouchere system where you divide the amount you hope to win into a set of random numbers to decide your bet, then bet on even-money bets. If you lose, you cross that out and continue with another bet amount. It’s a work-intensive system that gets complicated fast and can have small returns at best.
- The Andrucci System relies on past results to try to predict the future. But this doesn’t work in roulette, where every spin is separate from every other. It relies on you playing a few dozen bets on even-money options and noting all the numbers so you’ll see what the table “likes” that day. Then betting on those numbers to win big.
- The James Bond strategy requires you to place a series of straight bets, a line bet, and a zero bet - a total of 20 units - on the high numbers. This will cover a large section of the table. If you win, you’ll have some profit. If not, well… tough luck.
Roulette Tips
Finally, here are a few tips on how to get started in the secrets of roulette.
- Practice first! Before you spend any money on roulette, practice the game first. While you won’t find many live dealer roulette games you can try for free, there are more than enough RNG-powered variants to play. Learn the intricacies of the game, and master the rules and your strategies before you dive in!
- Manage your budget! This is a general rule for all casino games: always play responsibly and within your means, and never with money you can’t afford to lose! Set your bets in a way that gives you the maximum playtime with minimal risk!
- To play it safe, stick to even money bets. Red and black bets are best, but even/odd and high/low bets are also great choices.
- Before you try a betting system make sure to understand it, and choose a table with the right betting limits and rules so you can pull it off.
Keep things fun! Don’t let your gambling habits become a problem! And if it does, don’t hesitate to ask for help!
Roulette FAQ
What is roulette?
Roulette is one of the oldest and most famous table games you can play at online casinos.
How to play roulette?
Roulette has a simple set of rules. You place bets on single numbers, groups of numbers or various options. The croupier launches the ball on the spinning wheel. The number at which the ball stops is the winner. Once the ball stops, the winnings are paid out, and the game starts again.
How many numbers are there on a roulette wheel?
The European roulette wheel has 37 numbers (1 to 36, plus 0), while the American version has 38 (1 to 36, 0, and 00).
Can I win every spin on roulette?
It is possible, but it’s not very likely for you to win every single spin on roulette. It is a very unpredictable game that’s impossible to predict.
How to play roulette and win?
To win at roulette, you need to be lucky. There is no skill or strategy involved - only pure chance.
How much does roulette pay?
It depends on the bet. Outside bets like red/black and odd/even pay even money (the winnings are equal to your bet). A bet on a single number pays 35 to 1.