As with online slots, casino online roulette is a popular choice for novice gamblers who want to minimize the skill factor in their chosen game. Online roulette gives players 36 red and black numbers alongside two green slots that are reserved for zero and double-zero. Players then "spin" the wheel--or click the mouse, as the case may be--and hope for the best. There's no doubling down, no splitting, no checking, calling, or raising.
By far the most common bet is what's known as the straight bet. Here the player chooses a single number on the felt, then places his or her chips on that number in the hope that that magical whirling ball will come to rest on that same number. If it does, the player stands to win at a staggering 35:1 odds, which is yet another reason for roulette's popularity. There simply aren't that many games in any casino that promise such a disproportionately large upside.
Casino Online Roulette: a Numbers Game
Say you'd just placed a 20-dollar chip on number 17, then had the roulette marble stop on that very space. You would stand to win 700 dollars--not a bad payout by anyone's standards. But your odds of hitting that number were 38:1, not exactly odds you'd want if you were heading in for successful heart or brain surgery. To offset your risk, you can make what's known in casino online roulette as the street bet.
In online roulette, just as in "real" roulette, you can place that same 20-dollar chip at the beginning of the row reading 16, 17, 18. If any of those numbers comes up, you only stand to win 240 dollars, but your odds of doing so are three times better than they were before. Gambling online is all about managing your bankroll. If you've got money to play with, it can be a smart move to divide and conquer by splitting up your bet and increasing your overall odds of victory. Of course, that strategy is likely to be different if you're down to your final 20 bucks.