Live Dealer Roulette

Live Dealer Roulette is a way for gamblers to play roulette online using a real wheel, ball, and croupier. Roulette spins happen in real time with the help of a live dealer in a casino studio, then streamed to your computer with HD video. This guide shows you how live roulette online is played and which are the best casinos that offer this type of game. Keep reading for an overview of live casinos, along with tips and strategies for playing.

To play live online roulette for real money, you’ll need to register at an online or mobile casino. Online casinos hold a license to broadcast games from a live casino developer’s gaming studio. This article describes how to navigate the live casino studio to find roulette, blackjack, and other table games. It also describes how to use a games menu to make the many roulette bets. Give this page a read and you’ll know how and where to play live dealer roulette anywhere online.

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Steps to Playing Live Dealer Roulette

To play live dealer roulette online, you’ll need to find an online casino which supports this style of gambling. While that might be easy for someone in Europe, live casinos are featured less often in the United States. Top software providers like RealTime Gaming do not support live studios, so gamblers need to find websites which use Evolution Gaming or Vivo Gaming. Most sites which have a live casino advertise it on their homepage.

If a website does not have a live casino ad on the homepage, look at the promotions page. Most casinos which offer real dealers have a promotion to urge players into giving their live games a try.

Those completely new to the site need to register an account. This includes basic information, such as gender, first name, last name, email, security questions, mailing address, county, city, zip code, and contact phone. Players who want to gamble for real money need to either deposit funds in their account, or they need to find a site which offers a no-deposit bonus. These are small, but allow gamblers to play with house money. Once the account has been funded, you are ready to start playing live dealer roulette.

The popularity of live dealer roulette is impressive, as most players prefer this live casino game to many of the others. There are many different variations of the standard live roulette online, including European, French, and more. This is why we recommend you check out all of the available games, as well as the the innovative Immersive Live Dealer Roulette from Evolution Gaming. This adds slow-motion replays and special effects to the regular live game – creating a unique experience.

Where to Play Live Dealer Roulette

Visitors might be wondering which are the best online casinos they can play live dealer roulette at. Live roulette online can be enjoyed at all casinos which offer real dealer games. International and US players can check out the live casinos that offer the best real dealer roulette tables due to its popularity.

We have included our most trustworthy and highly recommended casinos for you to choose from. For those that want to take advantage of the big bonus to start playing, or if they have a live dealer roulette free chip be sure to check those out. Remember to look at the betting limits and see which ones fit your gambling requirements.

Casino

Features

Rank

Bonus

Limits

Play Now

Betway Casino

Play with hundreds of other players as you bet on which number wins at the many Live Dealer Roulette tables.

£1,000

Min: $1
Max: $5,000

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BetOnline Casino

Get a $25 No Deposit Bonus you can start using to play Live Dealer Roulette.

$1,000

Min: $5
Max: $100

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888 Casino

Win $8 when the winning number is 8 when playing in the 888 Private Room from 8–9pm every day.

$200

Min: $1
Max: $3,000

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Bet365 Casino

Play at over 10 different Live Dealer Roulette tables, including VIP and High Roller tables.

$1,000

Min: $0.50
Max: $50

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The list below are other casinos that use some of the latest casino software that offer live dealer roulette. We have reviews for several of these live online casinos, but not all of them. If you do end up playing at these casinos, check to see if they have a review. For those that do not, proceed with caution, as we have not made sure of their level of trustworthiness. Some of these accept US players, while others only accept international players.

Mobile Live Dealer Roulette

Players do not have to be tied down to a home computer. Live casinos support mobile roulette with live dealers, too.  The croupiers are well-trained, friendly, and fluent in your chosen language. The game opens in the the phones’ browser, so players can stream live dealer roulette spins on their Android or iOS devices. Any of the live casinos we discuss also have mobile compatibility.

You will find the live games you want in the mobile casino, but will have to look for the live casino section. Those playing from their Android, iPhone, or tablet will need to find the live casino section of the mobile gaming site. Once you click on the live casino link, you’ll find a lobby full of games, including live dealer roulette. The games menu and Live Chat works the same for smartphones and tablets, so follow the instructions and advice elsewhere on this page to play mobile-optimized live roulette online.

Setup of Live Dealer Roulette

Live dealer roulette and other games are usually handled by different companies to the creators of the main casino software platforms. The live dealer tables are integrated with the cashier and account system, allowing you to access them through the same lobby. Larger casinos will have tables branded with their logos and colors – while smaller casinos share unbranded general tables instead. When you access the live dealer section of your casino, you might find this looks and feels different to the other areas for this reason.

You will see a small selection of game types on offer, usually including Blackjack, Baccarat, and Casino Holdem as well as Live Dealer Roulette. There may be more than one game available, and some live dealer studios will show pictures of the croupiers next to them. To access a table you click on the game of your choice, which will usually bring up a new window containing the HD video stream and online betting interface.

Some live casinos online provide how-to guides for getting started. For example, Unibet Live provides how-to videos which describe how the live lobby works, what games and individual tables are available, and how the live dealer games work. They have specific instructions for live dealer roulette as well. Video tutorials for each step of the process are posted, along with information on particular game guides.

The live dealer casino games work the same way they do in a brick-and-mortar casino. Players can click on the chat box to communicate with the dealer or the other players at the table. Players are given the ability to play at multiple tables. The help button answers most of the questions you have, but players also can consult with the dealer, browse the FAQ, or even ask for a pit boss.

How the Roulette Table Layout Works

There are small differences in the layout and sizes of components between different online live roulette studios – though the fundamentals are broadly the same. Taking up the center of the screen will be the croupier and wheel, with a real betting grid set at an angle in front of them. Underneath this, you will find chips and other control options.

To bet, you first select your chip size and then click with your mouse on the betting grid. If your chip drops in the wrong place you can get it back again using a back button. Minimum bets vary between casinos; these are typically a little higher than for the virtual games. Maximum bets run into the tens of thousands for the high rollers out there.

Betting is timed in order to keep the game flowing. Once the croupier announces no more bets, it will not be possible to add or take away any chips. You will only see your own chips on the grid though many players may be enjoying the game at the same time as you.

When the ball lands you will often see a close up of the slot it landed in a corner of the screen. A dolly will be placed on the winning number, and bets will be automatically settled by the software. If you are using a favorite pattern, repeating this is as easy as clicking a “rebet” button.

Other parts of the interface allow you to chat using text with the other players and the croupier, who can reply verbally. This gives many games a social feel, though some games are restricted to the dealer wishing you good luck on each spin. There are also controls for sound and video quality. Players also can find a history of the recent spins displayed. This isn’t much help in roulette, because the recent results have no bearing on upcoming results, but it should be included.

Live Dealer Roulette Bets

Those who have never played online live roulette might need a quick tutorial. Read through the basic information below to get a rudimentary idea. Roulette is easy to play, because no strategy is required, and it is still true for live dealer roulette. When playing European Roulette, each bet has a 2.70% house edge. Choose the right size bet for you and begin to play.

The European Roulette wheel has 37 numbers, including the 0 and the numbers 1 through 36. For numbers 1-10 and 9-28, the odd numbers are Red and the even numbers are Black. For numbers 11-18 and 29-36, the odd numbers are Black and the even numbers are Red. The 0-slot is green.

The online live dealer roulette table has a grid of single numbers which are arranged in a three 12-number columns or twelve 3-number rows, however you wish to look at it. These rows/columns contain the numbers 1 through 36 in a sequence. At the top of the columns is green box with a 0 inside it.

Bets placed among the individual numbers are called inside bets, because they are placed inside the imaginary box which contains the grid of numbers. These include single (straight) bets, split bets on two numbers, street bets on three number, corner and top line bets containing four numbers, and a 6-line bet which covers two streets (rows). The inside bets have bigger payouts (5:1 up to 35:1), but have smaller odds of winning.

Bets placed outside the number boxes are called outside bets. These include a broader category of wagers, covering either 12-number or 18-number bets. The 12-number bets are called “thirds” bets, because they cover a third of the numbers between 1 and 36. Column bets also contain a third or a dozen numbers, and have the same 2:1 odds.

The 18-number wagers are called even-money bets, because they pay 1:1 when you win. These include one-half of the numbers and come in a number of varieties.

Even-money wagers are interesting for gamblers, because many casinos offer the “en prison” and “la partage” wagers with these. En-prison is French for “in prison” or “imprisoned”. It refers to a rule which places a player’s bet in prison for a hand, if the ball landed on the zero slot. The bet carries over to the next hand. If you win, you collect the imprisoned bet. If you lose, then the house collects the current bet, plus the imprisoned one. La partage has the same effect, except the casino simply takes half your bet, instead of the whole thing. Either rule cuts the house edge in half, but only on the even-money wagers. If a casino offers “en prison” or “la partage” rules, only wager on the even-money bets.

Handling the Zero Bet

The way a game of roulette handles its zero slots is the key to its odds. Notice that all outside bets lose when the ball lands on the zero. This creates the house edge, because you receive a 35:1 payout when you win, but you face 1:36 odds of winning. The difference in the two is what the casino uses to pay employees and invest in new attractions.

Rules and Strategy for Live Dealer Roulette

Keeping the house edge to a minimum in live dealer Roulette games starts with choosing the right wheel. The American wheel is one to be avoided, that extra zero (the ‘00’ slot) adds a significant extra to the house edge. By default you should choose the single zero European wheel – and where possible go for the French Wheel instead. French Roulette uses the European single zero wheel, with the added extra that if the zero hits even money bets return 50% to the player. This is as low as the house edge gets in any Roulette game.

On the even-money bets, the house edge on European Roulette is a lot better than it the house edge on American Roulette. The inclusion of a second zero pocket — the “00” slot — is the reason American Roulette has much worse odds. It’s another pocket on the wheel in which all of the odd/even, black/red, or hi/lo bets lose. Unless there are special house rules announced, American double-zero roulette is always worse than its European counterpart. If you find a live dealer European roulette you should always play at those tables.

This is more a strategy for entertainment or thrills than it is for winning. High stakes gamblers who feel the max bets on a site’s roulette games are too small should play French Roulette.

High rollers should learn about the “Full Maximum” or complete bets in live dealer French Roulette. It covers every bet possible on a single number, include the straight up bet, split bet, and so on. It is an easy way to make these separate wagers, thus increasing your betting capacity by 40x with one announced bet.

Many beginners read about progressive betting techniques and think they hold the key; they’re wrong. Progressive betting has the sheen of mathematics, so it sounds like it’s a can’t miss proposition. Even worse, the odds are progressive betting patterns are going to help grind out small winning sessions in the early stages of play. These combine to lead players down a dangerous play style.

The most common progressive betting style is the Martingale scheme. This was devised in the 18th century, so it has the respectability of old age. With the Martingale, a player begins with a default bet amount and simply doubles their bet every time they lose. If a player starts at $10, then they bet $20 after a losing bet and $40 after another losing bet. Bet long enough and, when you win, you’ll collect $10 for that series of bets.

The catch is what I just said: “Bet long enough.” This idea is a fallacy, for a couple of reasons.

First, tables have max bets. The Martingale produces exponential bet increases, so a player exceeds the max bet with a few unlucky spins. Also, the exponential bets after 7 losing spins would be $640. That would be a risk of $640 in order to have a $10 profit on that set of bets.

Most players soon exceed their own comfort zone when it comes to bets, if any amount of bad luck happens. All this is done to chase lost cash, which leads to the risk of ruin — that is, losing your whole bankroll. Computer simulations have been done and it’s been shown that the Martingale Technique loses more money over a billion bets than flat betting.

Other progressive betting schemes exist, but they all contain the same fallacy: that changing your pattern of bets is going to change the house edge. Other progressive bets include the Reverse Martingale, Labouchere, Reverse Labouchere, D’Alembert, Reverse D’Alembert, Paroli (Parlay), and Fibonacci betting. The Fibonacci Technique is one of the most bewitching of these fake strategies, because it’s based on the thought-provoking Fibonacci Patterns found throughout nature. Unfortunately, finding the secret to gambling in nature’s floral patterns is more numerology than mathematics, so I wouldn’t buy the con.

Just as barmy is the idea of playing a regressive betting pattern. That is, you increase your wagers when winning. Oscar’s Grind/Pluscoup and Tier et Tout (a la Boule De Neige) are examples of positive progressions. These are streak systems, based on the concept that a number is betting hot. Which is a good introduction to the gambler’s fallacy.

The Gambler’s Fallacy is based on a misunderstanding of how probability works. It centers around whether a game is “hot” or “cold”, or whether a number is “due”. The common sense approach to probability is that every number has an equal chance to appear on a roulette wheel. Thus, if a number hasn’t appeared recently, it is due to hit.

If live online roulette is done right, then every single spin of the wheel is separate from every other spin. If a spin hit on “7” last time, that does not change the probability of hitting a “7” on the next hand. Yes, over a million hands, the results are likely to look like the probabilities. In the short term, nothing of the sort applies.

Players tend to think in limited terms when gambling. They think of 1,000 spins as a lot. If the number 15 hasn’t appeared very often in 1,000 spins, they think 15 is due. It simply doesn’t work that way.

Also called Square Ro-Let, this betting pattern was introduced in Jack Kennedy’s 1998 book “Square Ro-let”. It combined a flat bet, the dealer’s signature, and Follow the Last Color betting to beat the casino. Unfortunately, no one could understand Positional Roulette betting. Even Jack Kennedy wrote “it can only be learned in practice”. That’s one of the great con games, to claim a system is so intricate and genius that only a few understand it. If a gambler uses the system and he or she fails, then it’s because he or she doesn’t understand the system enough.

Types of Roulette

Three different variations of roulette are played in brick-and-mortar and online casinos: European, American, and French Roulette. All three have common points, but each presents a much different gaming experience.

European Roulette is the single-zero variant which is the most popular version in the world. American Roulette is the double-zero variant which prevailed in Las Vegas and, thus, North America. French Roulette is the game with French-language bets and (often) a different colored wheel. Each game is highlighted below. Here is a more detailed breakdown of the three variations of roulette.

European Roulette

Live Dealer European Roulette is a game played on a wheel with 37 pockets. These pockets contain the numbers 1 through 36, as well as a single-zero. This is the version invented and made famous by Francois and Louis Blanc when they still owned casinos in Germany in the 1840’s.

When the Blanc Brothers moved their casino to Monte Carlo in the 1860’s, their version of roulette became the prevalent one across Europe, and throughout the European colonies around the globe. That legacy remains alive today, as European Roulette dominates in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Latin America. Becoming a globally recognized online roulette game, it can be found at many of the top online casinos with live dealers.

The house edge for European Roulette is 2.70%. If you use the “la partage” (of the parts) or “en prison” (imprisonment) rules, the house edge is lowered to 1.35%. The fact it has the lowest house edge only strengthens the appeal of European Roulette, assuring it remains most widespread in the Internet Age. This has quickly become the most popular online roulette with live dealers version found at online casinos, so players can take full advantage of this.

Pros of European Roulette

• The best odds available.
• Found in more casinos worldwide.
• Game people know the best.
• Often has advantageous house rules.
• Any bet has the same odds.
• Cons of European Roulette:
• Not available in all American live casinos.

American Roulette

It’s natural to assume the European version of a game is older, but American Roulette more closely resembles the original version of the game, which used two zero pockets instead of one. In its long isolation from the world in North America in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, double-zero roulette became synonymous with Las Vegas, and thus America.

American Roulette is a version of the game played on a wheel with 38 pockets. These pockets contain the numbers 1 through 36, as well as a single-zero (0) and double-zero (00) slots. Because an additional pocket is added to the spinning wheel, it means that the even-money wagers are less likely to win.

This increases the house edge to 5.26%, which is not good. Players should avoid American Online Roulette, if they have the opportunity. In Atlantic City, casinos are required by New Jersey law to include la partage rules. For this reason, the house edge on roulette in Atlantic City is 2.63%. Those are slightly better odds than the traditional version of European Roulette, so there are times when American Roulette is a better game, and is a popular live dealer roulette game.

The United States is large enough that it has produced a few variations all their own. Rapid Roulette and California Roulette are two such variants.

French Roulette

Live Dealer French Roulette is a version of single-zero roulette which adds a number of new bets. These wagers have French names, which refer to their placement on the roulette wheel. Live roulette online is yet another way that the French version can be played, but it may be limited to fewer online casinos. This would be due to the fact that European roulette is still more popular around the world.

The French bets tend to involve blocks of numbers as they are arranged on the wheel. This stands in opposition to the tradition way of betting in European and American Roulette, which involves betting on blocks of numbers according to their placement on the table layout or in a classic mathematical sequence.

These blocks of numbers can be as small as three, such as the “and the neighbors” bets and certain “finals” bets. One block of numbers has as many as seventeen numbers: the “Voisins du Zero” or neighbors of zero bets. In fact, a player can make a full-complete (maximum) bet, which involves 12-bets-in-1.

Here are some of the advantages and drawbacks to playing French Roulette. Below is a guide to the French bets.

French Bets

French Roulette has a series of wagers based on French-sounding terms. Without knowing the French language, you can learn how to make these wagers. These are announced bets, though they’re sometimes referred to as called bets. The player makes wagers by announcing them before the spin. If the dealer does not hear you or recognize you, then the bet did not happen.

French Roulette has bets which are hard to peg, if you’re used to the traditional categories used in American and European Roulette. If you look at the roulette wheel, though, the French bets make a lot more sense. These bets partition part of the wheel and provide players with a chance to wager on those combinations.

Roulette Cheats

Cheaters have learned ways to beat the casino at roulette and can be used when playing live dealer roulette, but these are not recommended. The fact we know of these forms of cheating is an indication that the scam artists were caught. As they say, the best cheaters never get caught. For entertainment purposes, I’ll detail the strategies used by roulette cheats.

Some people claim that mechanical roulette wheels are biased. Due to an imbalance, these wheels produce certain winning numbers more often. By tracking the long term results, this imbalance can be spotted and exploited. Wheel trackers claim the bias might be big enough to make roulette into a positive expectation game.

Wheel tracking sounds less viable than it might once have been. These days, casinos have a lot of mechanical and electronic means to discover and fix imbalances. No one tracks results better than the casino, which would fix an imbalance fairly quickly. The Wizard of Odds does not discount biases, but says they probably would be more likely in Europe. In an online casino, wheel tracking is impossible.

Those who propound ball steering theories, like the respectable Arnold Snyder, suggest dealers can steer the ball to a certain part of the wheel. By having a confederate bet on that section of the wheel, a dealer can help a player win more than they lose, then split the profits with them later. Because other gamblers at the wheel would lose according to the house edge, the casino would remain profitable and not be any the wiser.

This theory has several fallacies. Steering the ball would be much harder these days, as the ball bounces once it hits the wheel. Also, obstacles are found between the wheel and the slots, making it harder to control. Since such schemes are never revealed, the lack of scandal suggests ball steering is unlikely.

Top hatting is a known scam that involves the dealer. In top hatting, chips are placed on the winning number after the results are known. This usually involves the active participation of the dealer, either to overlook sleight-of-hand by a gambler or to actively place the chips on numbers themselves.

Several cases of top hatting have been revealed in the past 20 years. While it seems rudimentary, top hatting worked for one group for 20 years.

Again, it goes without saying that this kind of cheating is inadvisable. Wheel tracking, ball steering, and top hatting are not strategies, but cheats. These are not the only methods used by cheaters. Wheel gaffing and ball magnets have been tried in the past, too. This goes to show that dealer help is the way scam artists bilk the casino.

Cheats have no place in online or mobile gambling. Cheats also have no place in a live casino on the Internet, in which the dealers are playing at a location 5,000 to 10,000 miles away, in most cases.

As this entire section shows, roulette strategies are few and far between, as it is a game of chance. The best online roulette tips are to chuck all the betting techniques, gambler’s fallacies, and wild ideas.

While there are a lot of claims that betting systems can beat the house, the reality is that nobody has ever achieved this feat over the long term. Systems like Martingale betting (stake doubling) may reduce some of the variances in the short run though users eventually hit a run which sees them go broke. If you have any doubt, then simply ask yourself why casinos welcome users of these systems at the same time as coming down hard on Blackjack card counters who operate on supposedly much thinner margins.