The Most Common Roulette Mistakes

roulette mistakes are often costly. Avoid making these common errors.

Casino table games are simple for a reason. Their simplicity makes them more accessible to a broader range of people, which makes the casino more money. Roulette is a relatively simple game, yet roulette mistakes are common. The majority of roulette mistakes are human error, which means they can iron them out. More money ends up in your pocket, and not the casino’s the fewer mistakes you make.

Being unaware of the various odds is the basis for most roulette mistakes. Punters put their chips on single numbers and wonder why they do not hit one all night. They fail to understand betting on a single roulette number wins, on average, once in 37 spins. This leads to them blowing through their bankrolls in record time because they bet too much.

We are not advising avoiding betting on a single number. Some of our most memorable roulette sessions stem from scooping 35-to-1 payouts. However, be aware that these bets come in much less frequently than others and bet accordingly.

Using Betting Systems Is The Biggest Roulette Mistakes

Roulette mistakes come in all shapes and sizes, but they do not come much bigger than using betting systems. Certain roulette bets, particularly the outside black/red or odd/even, lend themselves to betting systems.

The Martingale system is the most common of these betting systems. It looks like a guaranteed way to make money. You double your bet after a loss until you eventually win. A single win is enough to wipe out your losses and book a small win. Perfect, right? Wrong!

Doubling your bets until you win is super risky. You will likely run out of money if you go on a losing streak. Besides, casinos set bet limits on their tables, so you will hit that or run out of money eventually. Avoid betting systems like the plague!

Playing on American Roulette Tables

An American and European roulette table look strikingly similar to the untrained eye, but they are vastly different. American tables have an additional double-zero on the wheel. Playing on American tables when European are available is up there with the biggest roulette mistakes.

You would not think adding another number would affect the game much. You would think wrong. European roulette has a house edge of 2.7%. American roulette, however, has a house edge of 5.26%. That is almost double adding another number. The casino still pays 35-to-1 on a number, which means your odds are lower.

Believing in Myths and Patterns

Every spin of the roulette wheel is independent of any other. The wheel does not have a memory, nor does it care what number came out last. Thinking any other way means you are making roulette mistakes.

How many times have you seen red numbers land seven, eight, nine, or ten times in a row? How many of those times have you stuck a bet on black because it cannot be red again, surely? Too many times, I bet you answered. I know I am guilty of making such bets.

You will see all sorts of craziness if you play roulette long enough. I once played in a British casino where the croupier leaves your original bet on the table after paying you out. Unlucky for some black 13 came out and won me £175 thanks to my £5 bet. I left my original wager on black 13, and it came in four times in a row. Banking £700 from £5 roulette spins is an excellent day in the office.

Humans are programmed to spot patterns and act on them. Train yourself not to do this by increasing your knowledge of variance and statistics. It makes for some great bedtime reading!